How a southerner handled her first Wyoming snow day

I woke up Tuesday morning and looked at my phone to check the time. Quickly realizing that I slept through a few alarms, I rolled out of bed and rushed to get ready. It wasn't long before I made my way back to the front of my tiny apartment and glanced out the partially open blinds.

I did a double take when I realized the ground had a dusting of white across it. The forecast had called for snow, and I knew that. But it was not supposed to come in until evening.

I guess planning to buy my ice scraper and boots after work was not as good of a plan as I had thought it would be. We don't get snow in southern Louisiana — except maybe once every few years. So when I moved to Wyoming in June, I didn't have any winter shoes or boots, but I figured that was a problem for future me.

Well, future me regrets my procrastination. Thankfully, the shoes I wear every day are some type of faux leather and generally keep a bit of water out. Before leaving my apartment, I took photos to share with family back home.

I took my first steps outside very slowly. I would not be breaking my neck on my first snow day, that was for sure. I didn't have a scraper or brush to clear my car, so I just hoped my wipers would be good enough.

I stepped into my car, turned the heat on and crossed my fingers. The wipers worked! But how was I going to get the snow off my driver's side window? I needed to be able to see. Colin Thiel pushes his daughter Oaklyn down a hill at Washington Park on Tuesday, Oct.

29 while the first snow of the season fell on Casper. Andrew Towne Now, I am no fool, or I like to think so. I knew that by rolling down the window it might fall in.

But the snow didn't seem packed on, so I thought that I could go slow and at least move it down most of the way without letting any in. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts And this worked ..

. until I accidentally activated the automatic window feature and sent the glass all the way down and dumped snow into my lap. By this point in the morning, it had not been snowing for long, so the roads still felt manageable to me.

I was in awe as I drove and the big snowflakes hit my windshield. Sure, I have been in snow before. I have family in Illinois, and I have visited Colorado in the winter.

But I had never been responsible for myself or driven in such a downfall of snow before. I arrived to work and stepped out my car. Squish Well, I wasn't expecting soggy snow when I got out.

Somehow I made it to the door without soaking my feet. By the time lunch rolled around, I knew that I would need an ice scraper before the next day, and I did not want to drive to the store alone. I convinced my coworkers to join me for lunch and we made our way into flurrying snow (I, of course, did not volunteer to drive).

Snow plows were roaming the streets of Casper on Tuesday, Oct. 29 as the first snowfall of the season fell. Andrew Towne I eventually found some decent winter boots and an ice scraper with a brush, but not before I had to trudge through melted ice and road sludge.

My feet did not stay dry through that. When we got back to the office, a snowball or two or five were thrown before we all made our way back inside. After I finished for the day at the office and survived my drive home, I cranked the heat inside my apartment.

Maybe, just maybe, this southern girl will be able to make it out here in the wild and snowy West..