I posted my yesterday’s blog before I got into my return trip from Erie.  I left Pennsylvania’s third largest city at 2:19 and anticipated a 3 ½ hour trip home.  I got to Butler County on I-79 when the alternator on my truck went.  AAA got me a tow to a garage that replaced it, for which I was very thankful.  However, this cost me 3 hours of time.  By then, I was in the middle of the winter storm.  I decided that instead of taking the direct route home on 422, I would go out of my way to get on the Turnpike in Cranberry Twp., thinking that the road conditions would be better.  To make a long story short, I got home at 3:17 this morning after the worst drive I can remember.  The Turnpike was a mess.  I was stuck at one point for 3 hours and talked to others stranded for many more.  I saw only two State Troopers on the highway, not enough plows, one service truck and three wreckers.  18 wheelers were stuck everywhere, and I mean everywhere.  Even if you wanted to get off the road you couldn’t, the service plaza at Somerset was plowed shut.  The phone number for the public to call for road conditions was worthless as was the message on their radio frequency.  Given the days of warning the Turnpike Commission had about this storm and then to be so ill prepared is inexcusable.  I travelled on 2 Interstates last night and both were in about as good a shape or better than the turnpike and, of course, given the better designed roadway, they were not subject to the stacked-up-for-miles traffic like the Turnpike.  Last night was a test of this state agency’s operations under trying conditions and it failed miserably.  They will be hearing from me when I get back to Harrisburg.

- John