Monday, Presidents’ Day, was a challenging one for travel on the Vineyard. Fierce cold, strong gusting winds and snow just cleared off the roads. I was visiting my mother on East Chop and was due to leave Monday morning to get back to the Berkshires for work. The first boat astonishingly arrived from Woods Hole around 10 a.m. I say astonishingly because the temperature was in the single digits and the winds were puffing up to 50 mph. But even more amazing was that ice had formed overnight on the waters in the harbor, an indication of just how cold it was. I have to compliment the SSA for its workers braving that frigid wind to dock the boat, direct traffic on and off the boat, take our tickets and guide us on board. The staff showed the same intrepid spirit upon docking in Woods Hole.

Then came the wait for the bus to the Palmer avenue lot. A few of us stood in line for awhile when an SSA employee suggested we wait inside out of the cold due to the delay. Another SSA worker told us later that the Woods Hole Road was closed due to a very large snow drift that prevented any traffic from moving. After about 20 minutes, a bus arrived driven by a lively woman who loaded us all on with friendly vigor and off she drove taking the back road by the water. She laughed with us all, told us stories of narrow misses and how the waters wouldn’t warm up until August! We were all delivered near our cars and then came the challenge: how to dig my car out of the 10 inches of fresh snow. I had no time to ponder this effort even though I had packed a shovel in the back of the car and was prepared for the work ahead. A young man materialized in a small plow and immediately dug me out then shoveled the remainder of snow away. I was on my way in five minutes. A hearty thank you to the SSA staff for their good humor, resilience and hard work on a very challenging day. We’ll all be talking about that ice for a long time to come but I didn’t want the equanimity of the SSA folks to go unnoticed.

Thank you from a happy customer.

Jennifer Dowley
Millerton, N.Y.