An Unexpected, Unwelcome Snowstorm in Iowa

I have just about decided to buy a Taurus for my "dog car."
I'll never forget a trip I took in early November, 1995, from Ohio to Omaha. An old soldier acquaintance of mine invited me to a dedication of a new Vietnam Veterans memorial statue in Omaha. I coupled the trip to visit "Field of Dreams" in Iowa.
I only wore sneakers...who knew what was in store for me?...
I approached Des Moines, road clear, making excellent time. Then , way off in the distance, the sky looked weird. Here it came! As I drove westward I came closer, and then was in it...it was like someone was throwing bucketfuls of slush on my windshield, and it didn't let up at all. Within minutes I saw about fifty cars in the ditch...this was not good! The temperature kept dropping and freezing the roadway and then it turned to a fierce all-snow storm, the wet kind that builds quickly. I was going about ten mph , and barely ably to see the road and keep the car mobile. I stopped for gas and stuck my sneaker in a foot of snow. The gas station guy had already provided shelter for many who had gone off the road for the night...but I pressed on. clear across Iowa...near dawn the next day I made it to a Holiday Inn and didn't even call the guy in Omaha....I got a room and slept for six hours. I did call the man and we attended the ceremony and checked out "Old Omaha" or whatever they called their mall-like downtown. I had a heckuva huge steak and couldn't get enough hot coffee. It was early November and ten degrees and windy as a March day.
Now when I go anywhere in the winter I take GORP and a thermos of coffee and a couple drinking- water bottles with me. Maybe a jar of peanut butter and a sleeve of saltines. Just in case.
The car I was driving was my brand new 1995 Ford Taurus. While many , most, in fact, of the cars went into the ditch that day, or just gave up, that Taurus held the road...I have been praising that car for years now. Of course I traded it off many years ago but now I am thinking of just getting another Taurus....they are obsolete now, so I better act quickly.