The story has been told verbally numerous times, but as time goes on, the memory gets dimmer. This is a story of adventure that needs to be saved for posterity. It is a little long, so if you are looking for a short story or are just uninterested, I recommend that you move on to another post.
Our move to Colorado was scheduled for two days. Fortunately, my employer paid for a moving company to get us there. Our stuff went from Reno to the Springs in a big orange Allied truck. The movers were great and had our stuff packed and loaded in less than two days. I was as ansty as can be not to be a part of the action. I don’t sit still well anyway, but while I was watching the moving guys do all the work… Well, let’s just say I ran a lot of errands. I know, I know, they get paid to do it but… I ran a lot of errands. I also helped a little even though I wasn’t supposed to. A moving company is definitely the way to go if it can be arranged. They finished loading on Tuesday.
Wednesday morning, I hooked up the 5th wheel to my truck and hooked the cargo trailer to the Expedition and we headed for Utah, me in my truck with Spencer and Jen in the Expedition with Rachel, Anna and Heber. The first leg of the trip went off without a hitch. We spent the night with Jen’s brother and his family in Lehi, UT. Thursday morning we headed off for the second and supposedly final leg of our journey.
The day dawned clear and bright. We cruised across Utah. I worked my poor truck to death, but we were making good time. We did limp into Colorado with my truck on empty. I had last filled up in Lehi, so we got off at the first Grand Junction exit and fueled up. We also ate lunch from the A&W in the gas station. Then we hit the road again. As we were leaving Grand Junction and headed into the narrows along the Colorado River, it started to snow. I slowed to about 55 to 60 mph. The snow soon disappeared and we were back to full speed having lost negligible time. The drive became quite beautiful after that with the partly cloudy skies over the Rocky Mountains. I got a call from a co-worker in Colorado that I had met in Nevada (he started with the company in Vegas) somewhere around Glenwood Springs. I told him how well the trip was going. If I had only known…
I also called the realtor to let them know that we would be a little late. She didn’t have any problem waiting for us to arrive at about 9 pm. If I had only known…
The sun decided to set at the same time the sky clouded over. And both things occurred as we got to Vail, CO. The lights were on in Vail, but it was still light enough for us to see the town creating a picturesque mountain resort scene. But the beauty of Vail was accompanied by start of falling snow and a temperature of about 10 degrees F.
Now, I need to stop and explain something for those of you who are not familiar with I-70 through the Rockies. Up until Vail, I-70 had been very twisty and windy in spots, but not steep. Vail is where it starts. After exiting Vail, we headed straight up as the temperature headed straight down. I had slowed down on the wet streets as I watched the temperature drop. So when I was going about 35 mph up a grade and tried to power up a little and felt the back end of my truck fish tail a little, I started to worry. But that worry was nothing compared to the worry as I headed down the other side and couldn’t keep my speed down with the trailer pushing me down the icy roads. At this point it was pitch black, cars were flying by me on my right, the road was either going straight up or winding steeply down (mostly up). I would catch myself on the verge of hyperventilation and force myself to calm down. Before long, I would catch myself again on the verge of hyperventilation and have to repeat the cycle. After cycling uphill and downhill, calm and stressed, for awhile overhead signs announced the upcoming Eisenhower Tunnel. I was relieved to think that I could over a mile and a half underground and dry. I was dismayed to discover that traffic had tracked the moisture into the first half of the tunnel and the temperature was still zero degrees F in the tunnel; so much for my rest. One thing to keep in mind is that I had never been on this stretch of I-70 before and has no idea how far we had left to go to reach Denver and get out of the mountains.
Upon leaving the tunnel and heading down the east slope of the Rockies, I finally decided to pull over in the next town (the first time it crossed my mind was at Frisco before even entering the tunnel) when Jen got tired of driving behind me. We had been going slowly up hill and the diesel exhaust had been hanging in the still snowy air behind me. She passed me up for some fresh air. We had no cell phones. I had my work Nextel but Jen had nothing. I was kicking myself for not having purchased the radios that I had wanted for so long. There was nothing for me to do but follow and hope she decided to pull over.
Finally, she got off in a town called Georgetown to get gas and to relax. She had been stressed about the road conditions also. I decided to fuel up as well (I didn’t turn the truck off though. Your temperature gauge in your vehicle will read negative temperatures.) We decided to call it a night. We were in ski resort country so even the cheaper motel should be fairly nice, right? Right?...
Stay tuned for Part 2, the interesting conclusion to our tale.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment