It was a dark and snowy night- no really it was- when my bus was slowly crossing the Ship Canal Bridge and all of the sudden, well, all of the sudden nothing happened.

Oh yes friends and neighbors we were stuck on a bridge 182 feet above Portage Bay and the road is turning to ice right before our eyes and cars are sliding all around us.

People went from impatient to angry and then the jokes started.

We would pick a sliding car and cheer for it as it inched it’s way slowly over the icy road. We yelled at drivers  who were texting and driving well sliding over the ice-

which makes me wonder what the hell were they texting?

OMG its icy?

Yes, we’d have guessed that had you ended up in the canal.

Anyway the jokes were flying including one about the Donner Party when we heard a horn.

It wasn’t a car horn, it was a deep bass horn that big serious trucks use.

So I look out my window and before I stop myself I yell:

” Yes. Something flammable Starboard!”

I mean all that was missing from this doomsday scenario was Mount Rainer deciding to erupt.

The truck with the flammable stickers all over its side zipped along beside us and covered the remaining 3,000 feet of the bridge with authority.

We sat there. And then we inched some more but darn it we did not slide back. However we weren’t moving. When the traffic thinned out our driver put on one of those glow in the dark vests, grabbed a bucket of sand and put the grit down around the bus’ tires and we were out of there.

When we got to the Park and Ride my husband was waiting for me. I have no idea how long he had been there, my bus was about an hour and a half late.

By then it was cold and dark and icy the snow started up and the winds started to blow.

What can I say.

It is a great night.

Photo: A.M. Moscoso