As Juanita was walking down Mole Hill

She met a stranded van heading for Newville

The stranded van held 12 thankful gals

The 12 gals had 4 mysterious sacks

The 4 sacks had 6 organic cats

The rescuers were more than one man (3 to be exact)

Cats, Sacks, Gals, Van

I wonder if you’re following still-

How many were walking down Mole Hill?

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My morning started early. I flew around the kitchen grabbing my standard cup of coffee and a quick bite. I checked my phone and the radar looked like the projected winter ice storm was yet to arrive. I started my van to clear the windshield of yesterday’s winter weather. And I was off in good time. 4:19 a.m.

The roads weren’t a problem as I headed to the other side of the county to load up my first passenger and her boxes. Apparently someone put an ad in the Lancaster Farming “cats wanted”. My friends were about the 40th to respond to the ad. (Surprise) and there was no longer a cat deficiency, but they knew of someone else who wanted 6 female cats. And since these came from an organic farm-I guess that makes them certified organic lol Either way-we carefully loaded the cat boxes in the van’s box and hurried on. Meowing as we went.

Picking up passengers always adds a lot of time to a travel day, but this one was moving along until-whoops fishtailed around a corner and ummmm power braked to stop at Dry River.

I realized that I was in an H.O.T (heap of trouble) about the time I started up Mole Hill. But I bravely continued only to spin out partway up the climb. The road was a sheet of ice.

I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem tho-because I could just back down. Wrong. Every time I hit the brakes to slow the descent, the back of the van would slide to the side of the road. The worst part of the process was this “Hey Kendra, can you see the 15 ft drop off we are rapidly sliding towards?” I couldn’t actually. But I stopped attempting to be strong and independent and did what any girl would do. I phoned up my dad.

He sounded wide awake for it being 5 a.m, and he didn’t hesitate “sit tight, I’ll be right there”

So there we sat.

While he donned his crocs (appropriate foot gear 🥴) de-iced his pickup, loaded a chain, and slipped and slid our way.

We sat helplessly as a tractor delivered more passengers who were anticipating heading to Newville PA to sort clothes for CAM.

We sat helplessly as a Ford Explorer inched down the hill and tooted the horn merrily as it passed by on the other side.

We sat helplessly as my cousin and her dad walked past armed with fresh cups of coffee heading for the dairy barn.

We sat helplessly as our knight in shining armor crocs slid past us in his pickup fishtailing as he went. He turned around, slid past us again and opted that a tractor was a better option for rescue equipment this round.

The rest of the story is fairly anticlimactic. My dad, my uncle, and a neighbor helped get my van on safer ground and after careful discussion, we decided to try to head to PA another day.

So with the pickup as pilot car, I carefully eased back down off of Mole Hill, retracing my steps.

(At one point, I went a different route than the pilot car and it was a good thing. He called with a road report and all I heard was “oh shoot,shoot,shoot… wooosh, I just shot through the stop sign at Bank Church and ended up in the field.” Well then)

So now I’m back to sitting…. beside my woodstove, rejoicing in God’s provision.

And if any of you have need for an organic cat or 6, I can save you an ad in the Lancaster Farming-these are boxed and ready to go.

Enjoy this wintery day,

Kendra

Bonus Pics:

Such a beautiful winter wonderland around here