Mancelona has had an astounding seven feet of snow already this winter.
Now imagine that falling on the approximately 3,400 miles of road in our five county listening area.
That’s about 20 billion gallons of snow.
Enough to fill Boardman Lake 10 times. If you still can’t picture it, try this: If you filled milk jugs with all that snow and lined them up end to end, they would go to the moon.
Twelve times.
IPR hopped into a snow plow in Antrim County where, at night with the snow falling, it feels more like being in a Star Wars movie than on the road.
Snowflakes shoot past the window like you're in an X-wing fighter racing through the asteroids and stars.
Inside this plow, you'll find Chip Grody at the controls, with a lunch in a bag on the dashboard and a couple of soda cans rattling around in the cup holders.
Grody has been plowing snow on this planet for 37 years.
"A lot of years of pushing this stuff," he said with a sigh. "A lot of years of pushing it."
We hopped onto US-131 and Grody put it into hyperdrive (53 miles per hour). And there was no center line to tell him where he should be. "I can feel it in my body," he said. "I can feel that I'm tilting this way."
He's Han Solo, and the Force was with him as he braved the unknown. Also with him — a dash of chivalry?
"I want to make these roads just as nice for Joe Public as they are for my wife," he said with a smile.
Stuck in the snow
IPR hopped out of Grody's plow and into a truck with Greg Spires, foreman at the Antrim County Road Commission's Mancelona garage, ready to head back for the day.
That's when the radio chirped.
"I'm stuck," said the voice.
A plow was lodged into the snow not too far away. We didn't even know plow trucks could get stuck.
The radio chimed in again, explaining the predicament. "There isn't a spot to turn around down here. It's gonna be tricky but we'll see what we can do."
The plow was jackknifed sideways on a slippery hill. Another plow truck came to the rescue. Spires tied the two trucks together and in a violent burst, the rescue truck jerked backwards.
The plow truck was tilted onto the snowbank, its plow is dragging behind him, pulling all this snow with it. A steep slope loomed on one side of the road. It was a tense moment.
Eventually, the rescue plow was able to pull the stuck plow back into the road to safety.
Thick puffs of snow fell from the sky as Spires climbed back into his truck. On the way back to base, IPR asked him what all this snow means to him.
"Well, when I retire," he replied, "I'm going somewhere where I don't see it."
