WTF

OK, I've been in some really weird storms, and had to drive through some of the weirdest ones this winter. But last night takes the freakin' cake.
Ever heard of a thundersnow? Yeah, I didn't believe it either. But believe this, it sucks.
Our drive to GR was going just grand until about Saugatuck, then we started into the lake-effect snow. No big deal, it's almost a given, right? It started to tail off as we headed east toward Grand Rapids, but then it got really nasty. Blinding, icy nasty. We slowed to a crawl at about 35 mph to make sure we were staying in the only tracks we could see on the road. And then, every few minutes, the clouds above would light up with lightning. LIGHTNING! This is winter for crying out loud. C'mon. The roads got worse and worse, punctuated by the occassional asshole driving way too fast and passing everyone. Ann's freaking out, Clare is wondering why we're not at Nana and Papa's yet, and I'm in some sort of bizarre, real-life video game trying to keep the van out of the ditch. We finally see the signs for M6 to skirt around the south side of Grand Rapids, and we crawl onto that ramp at about 15 mph. A car in front of us is just barely moving, so I make the first pass of the night and quickly realize there's a benefit to having someone in front of us. Now I can't see shit. Really. I mean, I don't freak out too much on the roads, maybe it's a guy thing. Maybe it was growing up in MI where driving in crappy conditions is more frequent. Either way, this had me a little nervous. All I can do is follow the pitch of the road to make sure we're still on it. As we continued to crawl down the road, I realize all of a sudden that what I just passed on my left was a sign saying "Exit 1" with an arrow pointing our way. I've just been driving on an exit ramp without knowing it, and the 10+ cars following me have been lead off the highway completely. This brought the first good laugh of the night, and we just continued up the ramp, to the stop sign, over the road and back onto the highway. Game on again, sort of. The snow was coming down so fast and fat that it made me dizzy trying to see through it and concentrate on the tracks in the snow. After another 30 minutes of this we finally pulled off onto the corect exit and made our way down the beltline to mom and dad's house. I felt dizzy the rest of the night, like I had been on some ride doing loops for an hour.
It was a whole new kind of fun on the road, one I would not like to repeat.
When we got here, the weather guys on TV were talking about some weird phenomenon called thundersnow. Sure, on the night we came into town. Perfect! More on this later, we've gotta get to Benjamin's birthday party!!