Sunday, February 16th

The Next Morning
Skaters awoke the next morning to find a thick cloud of snow falling outside their window. The majority of them packed up as quickly as they could to get out of town as fast as possible. Nikki and I came down to say goodbye to the guests. She made plenty of phone calls and arrangements to make sure everyone had everything they needed to leave and check on flight cancellations. "I would especially like to thank the NSC FreeStyle Rollers for extending courtesy to Essie, allowing her to ride back with them as far as SC, after her flight was cancelled," Nikki stated. "That gesture meant a whole lot in the big scheme of things. There were extreme conditions and through it all, compassion for others even during your time of distress is what really matters. Thank you for your compassion. God Bless you all".

The Flint Roller Skating Association and Flint Angels never went to bed. They were up and out not too long after the skate party. It took them a little longer to get home but they reached their destination in good time considering the road conditions. As for Ohio, that's another story.

Most of the Ohio rollers left together and formed a caravan that consisted of the 'Nati Skate Train, Easy Rollers and Columbus Finest, to embark on a journey that under normal weather conditions, would have only taken 8-10 hours. They departed the hotel around 12:00 noon. By this time, plenty of snow had already fallen. They had no idea what was to come.

Back at the hotel, we had a few travelers that still had to make the drive but were stranded. The city had called a state of emergency and anyone caught on the streets driving would be fined $1000 or jail time. Considering the options, I jokingly asked, "How much jailtime?"

Those Who Were Left Behind
It was Sunday afternoon and Player Mike called the airline to check on his flight and was told that it was scheduled for departure. He went to the airport only to find that it had been cancelled and he had to return to the hotel. The airports were not allowing stranded passengers to hang around and wait for flights due to the terrorist alerts. Darrin of the NSC Freestyle Rollers, boarded his plane and took off, only to return to Philadelphia due to the weather conditions at his destination city.

Chris of Chi-Town High Rollers showing a car buried in the snow across the street from the hotel.

So who was left over? "Player Mike" and Dori (Kansas City, MO), Khannie (Philadelphia), Chris, Marvin, Robin, Tito, Darius, Mack, Nate, (Chi-Town), Donahue (Atlanta), Varnetta and her daughter, Andre, Temica, Nikki (Washington, D.C.) and me (Dayton). We all had one great big party in our rooms at the hotel while we closely watched the weather reports. We were surprised to see Darius and Tito on television giving a blow by blow report on the blizzard with the local CBS station! After they made their meteorological report, Darius, Tito, Mack and Nate determined it was safe enough to head back to Chi-town.

Sunday Night
We continued to call the guests who had braved the roads to make their way to their respective residences. The North and South Carolina crew had made their way to Rocky Mountain, NC. We called Ohio crew to check on their progress. Their speed of travel ranged anywhere from 0 m.p.h., a result of trucks that had jack knifed and cut them off in the path, to a whopping 22 m.p.h. on 65-70 m.p.h. roadways. Their travel through the mountains was tormenting and of course tempers and attitudes not pleasant as a result of frustration. It was 11:00 p.m., 11 hours into the journey when Rob Hunter called me back at the hotel to give an update. Understandably, he was frustrated but tried to keep his spirits up by making jokes.

"Desi, it's really bad out here. We are driving in the mountains and the roads are covered with ice." Rob explained. "My SUV is doing the Open House, and Stacey ("Rollin Diva") is behind me doing the Cha Cha Slide (Slide to the left, Slide to the right)!". Behind us is Mr. Pearl and Fabulous, the ER van, Shirley and Bandele, and the Columbus Finest, Spicy E and Mr. Groove are somewhere about an hour back." All we could do back at the hotel was set up a headquarters to check on our guests, check on airport closures and pray.

Off to the Rink We Go
It was Monday morning when the survivors received a call from G-Man. "Hey, I don't want you to stay in the hotel any longer. They are running out of food over there and it doesn't look like they will be able to get any more in. How would you like to stay at the rink? Discuss it with the group and I'll call you back later."