Our daughter Felicity had a “house sit” in Louisville, a community northwest of Denver. We had arranged to drive over to that part of the state to visit her, stay overnight, then drop Felicity off at the Denver airport the next day so she could catch her flight back to Portland.
The drive over, on Saturday, was uneventful. We met up with Felicity at her house, visited, then went out for dinner at a place called Huckleberry’s. The food was good and the house’s specialty tea was a big hit with Pam. Then we retired back to the house, visited for another few hours, then went to bed.
Sunday morning saw several inches of new snow on the ground. We had expected this storm but had hoped it would arrive later in the day; that was the original forecast. Apparently the storm arrived early!
Jerry and Felicity walking to breakfast in the snow
After breakfast we dropped Felicity off at Denver International Airport and began the westward trip home. Driving through Denver was more than a bit tense, as we saw a few cars spin out and our own tires slipped a few times. Getting up into the foothills and leaving the storm behind seemed to be working, until we exited Eisenhower Tunnel and began the ascent up Vail Pass, which was socked-in with snow. The eastbound lanes (traffic traveling toward Denver) were hard hit, with cars spinning out and stopping traffic.
Eastbound traffic stopped on Vail Pass
A bit further along on Vail Pass, the state police has closed the eastbound lanes, something we had suspected due to a sudden and complete lack of eastbound traffic. What a mess.
Colorado does have a law that requires passenger cars and commercial vehicles to have “adequate snow tires, traction devices, or 4-wheel/all wheel drive” for winter driving. Obviously the passenger cars we saw causing the problems did not have this equipment. Fines for noncompliance can run several hundred dollars. If only one or two cars spin out, the pass gets closed to all traffic, irritating other travelers and causing big headaches for the 18-wheelers.
We ran out from under the storm right about the bottom of Vail Pass. After our wild ride through the snow belt, the rest of the trip home was uneventful. Arriving home after dark, we unloaded the car and called it a night.
I had Monday off to observe Veteran’s Day but had several projects to work on. First was putting in a temporary repair on the clothes washer; one of two belts had bit the dust, making the machine inoperative. A trip to the nearest NAPA got me two auto belts, not an exact match but something that would work until I could order new belts through Maytag. The washer works but Pam has to run the spin cycle a couple times to get all the water out of the drum. New Maytag belts will be here next week and I’ll finish the repair then.
Another chore was leaf collection and mulching. I worked on our lawn, including mowing the grass for the last time this year, and a neighbor’s yard as well. At least the weather was decent – sweatshirt temperatures for the most part – and dry, making this job go pretty well.
The Ford F-150 had developed an engine miss so I replaced a fouled spark plug. Truck is currently running fine again. Along those same lines, my John Deere garden tractor had a front tire that decided to give up the ghost. It frequently goes flat in about an hour after I fill it with air, so time to replace it. A new tire was found online for $20.00 with free shipping and the nearest Walmart mounted it for$5.00. As I use the JD for snow plowing in winter, I want the tires to be in good shape.
Holiday Preparations: Thanksgiving is coming up next week. The day after Turkey Day we usually put up our outside Christmas decorations. We’ll be watching the long-term weather forecast, which shows a storm coming in — but — we are still several days away and that may change. Pam is working on this year’s Christmas (actually Solstice) cards, which will be hand-made, similar to what we used to do years ago.
We hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Two Cents Worth:
While it was great to have a nice, long, face-to-face chat with Felicity into the night hours, I am so done with drives through Colorado mini-blizzards over mountain passes. Done.
However, I did have both a lovely [Fall-spice-flavored] Chai tea at dinner in Louisville and a Culver’s pumpkin shake on the way home. Simple pleasures.
Happy trails.