Rural areas of the Ozarks were some of the hardest hit by the ice and snow on Thursday. In Webster County southeast of Marshfield, they truly were iced in.
Turnbo Road was eerily quiet late Thursday afternoon. All of the action was inside the Fletchell house.
"Just started doing my push-ups not too long ago."
Gabe Fletchell, 11, was certainly not wasting his first official snow day of the school year.
"Recently, we've been doing 200 but now I do 210."
That's push-ups, in sets of ten. While other kids may have been sledding, Fletchell was working out. That was probably for the best since his sledding hills were covered in ice.
The Fletchells live off B Highway, a road so twisty and curvy that the Webster County sheriff calls it one of the most dangerous in the county, and that's in nice weather. A mother and her infant were killed in a fiery crash there just last week.
Kim Fletchell has never wrecked but she knows when to stay home. Fletchell's older son went to work in Springfield on Thursday morning, though.
"He called me and said after he got off the back roads out to I-44, 'don't get out mom,'" she said.
Kim and Gabe heeded his advice, happily on Gabe's part.
"I like spending the day at home since I go to town about five days a week," he said between exercises.
Plus, it gives him more time to work on his physique.
"I'm trying to get strong, kind of conditioning," he said.
Gabe will have even more time Friday since Marshfield schools cancelled for that day also. As for his mom, she works in Springfield and says she plans on going to work.
