My adventure with Storm Fionn

As Storm Fionn wrought chaos in England and Cambridge, here's my adventure in returning a rental car this morning.

Storm @ 3am 18 Jan with 45mph winds / 60mph gusts in East Anglia - http://bit.ly/2mJybNZ (click to enlarge)

We had rented a seven-seater to go to a funeral yesterday, and I never made the short trip from home to Cambridge Car&Van Rental in time for 9AM drop-off today, straight down the map below.

Google Maps, modified (click to enlarge) 

1. First I arrive at Waterbeach and cannot turn South, as the road in red wiggle above is closed
2. so I turn north instead, stop @ 8am to call the rental asking that I return it by noon after class
3. as I had my first uni. class to attend for note-taking, I hoped to get there the long way around
4. Google Maps traffic showed that the A14 the straight red Y is also blocked, I went X-country
5. but even with relatively quiet traffic there, I never made it to W Campus until 9:30 mid-class
6. so I give up, notify uni. I cannot make it, and head back to filling up and returning the rental
7. I drop the car off at 10am and return home via Waterbeach, again tailbacks put me there 10:30
8. ... that's exactly four hours after I turned north in Waterbeach toward my adventure X-country
9. normally 7.5 mi. (12 km.) to the car rental, and 4 mi. (6.5 km.) to W Campus, take 20 min. each
10. and the 51 mi. (82 km.) round trip normally takes 1¾ hrs. in normal traffic, under half my time!