Seriously this trivia will go down in the record books as the most memorable.  Not because we scored the best but because of all the “unnatural disasters” that happened.  No one got hurt thankfully and that in itself is a miracle.   

Friday started out rainy and then just steadily got worse.  Snow was forecast but no one knew just how much.  Trivia began just as always with pizza and the Friday night players:  Bob and I; Tom/Mary/Emily; Anna/family; Sarah/friend Amy; and the Kesslers.  And it snowed and snowed through the night.  Tom/Mary/Emily/Dave made it home through a blizzard.   

Saturday morning brought some record snows and blowing.  We were out early to clean out the driveway for arrivals and departures.  Only to find out the snow was over 17” deep and we were out of gas for the snow blower.  Thinking positively that we were done with snow for this year Bob had already drained the gas and had it ready to put away.  No gas.  No snow blower.   

It took Dave 30 minutes to drive the 4 mile stretch to rejoin the group and go to town for the “running questions (scavenger) event” which scores points.  The running questions were cancelled. There is also ongoing “trivia stone – scavenger” events which are scheduled every 3 hours which were also cancelled.  Never before in the history of trivia were events cancelled.   

Too much to shovel, Bob and Dave proceeded to siphon gas from the car into the gas can and into the snow blower.  With just enough to make a few narrow passes down the driveway for emergency, and enough siphoning to make them sick to their stomachs, they opted for a “drinkable beverage”.     

Saturday we played with a skeleton crew.  The night players Anna, Sarah/Amy, and Todd were recruited to continue playing into the day.  Where we would usually have about 8 new fresh players for the day we were down to the night crew doing overtime shifts.  And they did fantastic, as I think we all tried to pull our weight literally.   

Still snowing and blowing.  No one else in or out.  No Beck family and no Marks family returning.  But we kept playing and racking up the points that we could.  No fear we had enough food and beverage to keep us going.  And we were entertained by the furry players Sophie, Toby, and Milo (the newest fluffer nutter as Anna calls him). 

Then the afternoon came and we LOST POWER.  Do you know what that means?  Aside from the important computers for the contest, we have no heat, no phones, and more importantly can’t flush toilets.  At that point beverages were sipped rather slowly.   

We saw the electric power truck down the road so I bundled up and buckled up my snow shoes and trekked several driveways down to check out the situation.  Power lines were down.  We would be serviced next.  Power has now been out for over two hours.  We made the burritos on the grill and heated water for coffee.  After a total of 3+ hours power came back on.  But just think of all the questions and points we missed.   

And it is still snowing and blowing.  Saturday and into the night and into Sunday morning.  Roads are closed completely.  DOT shut down Hwy 10 and Hwy 51/39 was dangerously impassable.  And we played on.  The Marks tried to venture out on Saturday and were stranded in their half mile long driveway.  They spent hours digging out.  Dave ventured out with his truck and had to go round and about to get to his parents to pick up their other dog Charlie and the last of their things so they could leave from our house on Monday morning.  Luckily Dave stopped for gas for the blower.   

And it is still snowing.  We played right up till the last question at midnight hour 54 on Sunday.  Then people crashed where ever there was an empty spot to sleep using all the pillows and blankets in the house.  After a hearty breakfast and many cups of coffee, everyone was out to brush their cars, plow and shovel the driveway, and head for home.   

Exact snow totals were hard to calculate because of the snowing and blowing.  We are figuring that we got approximately 28-33” from what the local surrounding areas got.   

Then came the trivia clean up for Bob and me.  But that too is part of trivia.  And with all that happened we scored at 201 place.  That was worse than last year but all things considered we think it was amazing how good we did.   

Who knows when or how long trivia will go on but even with all that happened, trivia was a blast.  Another trivia with memories but this year surpasses the other years; the year of the bird; years we sat on the deck and got sun burnt; the year where the beer taps weren’t turned off and we had a beer flood on the floor; the year of the melted microwave cover; and the list goes on and on but this is the most memorable.   

And thank you all, whether you were here with no sleep, or were with us in spirit, trivia wouldn’t be trivia without all of you.  Bob and I thank you and look forward to next year.  Trivia April 12-13-14, 2019 will be the 50th year of trivia and we’re expecting they may have some special things planned.