Should I Stay or Should I Go

Brett texted me this afternoon to ask if I thought he should stay in a hotel tonight in Columbus.  Since I hadn't really paid attention to the weather in Indiana since the storm aftermath on Tuesday, I was a little bit surprised by the question.  I knew Cameron was on his way to the grocery store, so I called him to see what he thought about the roads.  He confirmed that they weren't that great and that it might make sense for Brett to stays.  That's when I used all of the skills that I learned about Indiana 511 this week to help Brett.  

The first thing that I did was check the travel advisory on the Indiana Department of Traffic website.  Thankfully, neither Columbus nor Bloomington was in the red zone, so Brett would be able to travel if needed.  Next, I looked at the radar on the weather channel.  The current snow was to continue until 11 p.m.  Since I didn't know how hard it was coming down, I turned to the Indiana snowplow cameras posted on the 511.org website.  It showed real time road conditions from the cameras attached to the snowplows and the poles along the main highways.  As soon as I saw a picture of the current situation on SR 46, I sent it to Brett.  He texted back, "hotel it is!"

Brett called me when he got off of work to see if I could help him come with a hotel close to his work and near a restaurant so that he could eat dinner.  After reading the reviews and prices to Brett, he had me book him a room at the Days Inn.  The price was well within his budget, the room was nice, and he was able to eat his Marco's pizza, watch some videos, work on his current story and even do some exercising without worrying about traveling on the slippery roads.  It made for a fun evening and the added bonus was that he would only have a ten-minute drive to work in the morning.

I hung up the phone with Brett tonight happy that I had been able to help him even though I wasn't close to Columbus or Bloomington.  I was also proud of the fact that he, just like the rest of our children, was financially stable and had plenty of money saved for nights like tonight. Karen texted me tonight to let me know that she appreciated me helping Brett this evening.  It was great to feel appreciated, but most importantly, it was nice to know that our family does not have to rely on others to help them out and can make the decisions needed to stay safe and happy when an unexpected event occurs.