This is our 3rd year in Colorado, and although we've had a couple big snow storms, nothing that compares to what we just had. I've never seen anything like this before, when I left for work yesterday at 6:30a.m. everything was dry and clear. When I left from work at 11:30, there was already 8 inches of snow on the streets and it was falling really fast.
I hitched a ride with Sarah from downtown (good choice #1 for the day) to have her drop me off to drive Jill home (good choice #2 for the day). The great thing was that since we had two people, we hit the HOV lane (High Occupancy Vehicle) and that would be the best thing to happen to us all day. As we clipped along down the HOV lane, I-25 North had come to a complete stop. It was a parking lot, and as the miles went by we became more and more thankful that we were in the HOV lane.
As we hit Highway 36 (Boulder Turnpike), it became evident what the problem was. The on ramp to 36 was a demolition derby with cars all over the ditches and traffic completely stopped in a severe state of disarray. We just kept trucking in our divided lane, and as we merged onto 36 we saw a semi and several cars that were literally stuck in the highway blocking all lanes (except our HOV lane that is a divided lane). We blew past them to find only a handful of cars in front of us. As we drove, the east bound lanes became a mess (36 east was closed due to the accidents), but we ultimately made it to 36/287 interchange where Jill was waiting for us. When we hit the interchange, it was gridlock in all directions. It literally took us about 30 minutes to go 1/4 mile. And we would find out later that night, that we were the lucky ones...
We briefly tossed the idea around of leaving Jill's Honda Accord and going with Sarah in her 4x4 SUV, but decided we would give it a try and hope that the snow wasn't too deep for our little coupe. As we turned north, headed for home we were mired in a quagmire of cars. Everyone just sitting, not moving and having no idea why traffic had stopped. Eventually you'd break out of it and see party lights flashing with crashed up cars or cars in ditches, and then you'd get a couple miles before repeating the process.
After going through that process about 5x and sitting in the same 1 mile section for about 1.5 hours, we got adventurous. We took a right turn off the highway and started navigating our way through city streets and back roads just trying to get home before it was too late. Maybe our impatient reaction wasn't the smartest plan, but it worked. We broke free of the traffic and had a free run of 287 northbound. Free run until we hit "the hill" that is....
As we approached the one major obstacle in our path, we planned out our attack. We'd back away from the other 1-2 cars near us, and carry speed and momentum to help us get up the hill. Of course, we didn't think to account for another car veering across the road in front of us, and having 3 guys push him back into our lane right as we were making our ascent. Thanks for letting us get through guys! Ugh.
In a tense moment, we slowed to allow the other car to get corrected, almost coming to a complete stop. Finally I gassed it and caught enough traction to keep moving, although we were spinning like crazy and nowhere near the top. Luckily, the tires gripped enough to keep us going forward, but just barely. We were moving about 5-10mph, and the speedo was showing 40mph and I wasn't letting up. With some luck and by the grace of God we crested the hill and both breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The rest of the ride home went pretty smoothly, with the only other complication being getting into our neighborhood. With some speed and a whole lot of bump drifting technique, I brought the Accord to rest in front of our driveway. As we opened the doors, the doors were about 3 inches below the snow line. Uh oh...
After about 30 minutes of rigorous shoveling, I was ready to try to get the car in the garage and out of the way of any snowplows (wishful thinking) that may run through the neighborhood. I got in put the car in reverse, and it went nowhere. I got out and looked, and both the wheels were spinning freely as it had high-centered. I dug it out some, then cut the wheel so it made contact with the curb and I had movement.
I backed up just enough to give myself a little run before hitting our angled driveway, and then the real adventure was on. As I spun up our 1/2 cleared driveway I skid from side to side in a "S" pattern with the tires spinning like crazy. I knew I had one shot, and so there was no backing off. That being said I definitely preferred not to smash the car into the side of the garage. Finally I caught a bit of traction and the Honda cruised safely into the garage. The truck? Well its at the bus depot and will probably be staying there for a very long time as its a 2 wheel drive V8 with little to no weight in the back and doesn't go so good in the snow.
More posts to come with more pictures of the craziness. I'm seriously considering skiing down our driveway....
1 comment:
Wow glad you made it home. Marni and I sat here watching it snow us in. Today was a major neighborhood shoveling and snowblowing opperation between most of the men and a few of the women and we got all the houses involved clear to the middle of the street. Of course when the plows do come through we'll be blocked in again but with any luck they'll open 70 east and we'll be off for Christmas!
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