Time frame was the early 90s. My daughter Keely had been out of the home for 3 or 4 years. It was Christmas time. Now my ex-wife has lots of fine traits, but Christmas is 
not one of them. For her Christmas IS the time of year. I always said after she had completed her decorations (which seem to compound year by year) that the house looked like a bordello. She started buying Christmas presents sometime around August 1. For her Christmas is all about friends and family, giving, feasting and enjoying each others company.
I, on the other hand… Do you remember Ebenezer Scrooge’s famous line, “Bah Humbug”? In certain circles it is a well known secret that he actually stole the phrase from me in one of my previous reincarnations. Christmas IS not my favorite time of year. If I am in a really jolly mood in any one year, I just try to maintain and make it through.
At that time we live in Alma, AR. To help you locate Alma it is just outside of Fort Smith. Fort Smith is on the Oklahoma border just about in the middle of the state. Keely was living in Little Rock which is in the center of the state. It is about a 2 to 2 ½ hour drive between Alma and Little Rock.
Arkansas is famous for its ice storms, and they had just had a vicious one centered on Little Rock and extending quite a ways westward. Keely had planned on driving up on Christmas morning. If you have not been to Little Rock, you need to know it is a very hilly city. Thus when the weather is wintry the driving becomes problematic. Keely had called her mother, and reported that she could not even make it out of the parking lot of the apartment complex where she lived.
As mentioned, Christmas was her mother’s time of year and it meant family needed to be home. Her mother was having a melt down because her daughter was not going to be able to make it back. I do not clearly remember the chain of events that lead up to my starting the expedition. Apparently, I had volunteered to drive to Little Rock and pick Keely up. I did not want to take my pickup as it was not the best on icy roads. Her mother probably had a Camry of some ilk. With it being front wheel drive I took that.
Leaving Alma was not a big deal. However, in a very short distance, around Ozark, black ice began to appear on the Interstate in patches. I find black ice particularly scary as it will not be there for a while then a patch will jump up. If you are not paying attention it is easy to lose control of your vehicle. I dealt with this for a while, only to see the black ice turn into thicker, constant ice. This, of course, slowed down my rate of travel. The closer Little Rock became, the thicker the ice became. Finally the ice was very thick, and there were ruts in the ice from the Christmas Day traffic, traffic which was moving 10 or 15 miles per hour. Occasionally, it would come to a standstill. The ruts were deep enough that once in them, you were forced to stay in them.
I did manage to get to Keely’s apartment complex. I had not been to this particular abode before, so I had to drive around a bit to find her apartment. As hard as it will be for some to believe, this was before cell phones. So I needed to find the apartment to actually knock on her door. This particular complex followed the Little Rock pattern and was hilly with several good slopes. More than once I thought I was going become stuck myself, and then there would be just two at the homestead for Christmas.
I escaped all those perils, and gathered up Keely. Only now it was becoming dark. However, I reversed my direction of travel, and headed the Camry back to Alma. I do not remember how long the whole trip took, but it seemed like a week of driving a semi over the mountains. I got mama’s little girl home safe for Christmas, and a merry time was had by all. Maybe even Scrooge.