So, I went skiing this weekend. While driving out to Beaver Creek on Friday night, I was thinking I was pretty fing lucky to live out in Colorado and be able to just drive to whatever ski resort I wanted, because some people spend their entire vacations to go skiing and whatnot. So that was a nice thought.
The skiing was cold. And good. There was powder, and I'm not good enough to be super excited about powder, because I get stuck in it and fall over sometimes. But it was still fun. I learned a lot. I ALSO learned that rich people (at Beaver Creek) do not want to be above the treeline and that they cannot properly design a ski resort. There were WAY too many boring traverses that you had to go on to get from any given lift to any given run that you were interested in. At least thats what I gathered while I was up there.
The real excitement came when I decided to stay Saturday night instead of driving back even though I knew there was a giant storm coming and a Winter Weather advisory that said traveling during said storm would be hazardous or impossible. Whatever. I was nervous in the night and checked the status of Vail Pass and the roads and the snow on my SUPER COOL BLACKBERRY WITH DATA PLAN. Still open. Good. I really didn't want to get stranded in Beaver Creek because my kitties will run out of food and I had (have) SOOOOOO much to do.
I woke up at 6:38 am. I was out of the house by 6:50 am. It took me like 15 minutes to dig my car out (with my boots and arms, shovels are for pansies) of the 14 inches of snow that had fallen in the night. A nice plow-boy that was going around helped to dig me out a little. Scrape the snow away from my back tires with my boots, AND we're off! Sweet! I was a little worried I would be stuck there.
I might mention at this point that I have a 1994 Chevy Cavalier. Front-wheel drive. AND my blower motor, which has had previous issues, decided to stop working on the drive up. That means NO defrost and NO heat. Fun!
Open the window to defrost my windshield, wipe it down a little with a random piece of clothing. Out of Avon and onto I-70, yay! I was gaining confidence, probably got up to 55 tops on the journey on those lovely snow packed roads. Passed SUVs. HA! Fuck you guys, I don't need no four-wheel drive! At some point I realized that my jacket was unzipped. And I was wearing a t-shirt underneath. But no time to take my hands off the wheel, and I didn't want to stop. Vail Pass was fing cold and there were lots of people driving the OTHER way, you know, since 14 inches of powder had just fallen onto the resorts. Making it over Vail Pass was a relief, until I realized I had hours more of driving to go. And it was SO cold, opening the window every once in a while. Balled up hands in the ski gloves (not the safest for driving with).
FINALLY I make it out of the mountains. Go to the mandatory 7-11 in Golden, get me some goddamn hot chocolate and cream cheese & jalapeno taquitos. ZIP UP MY JACKET. Scrap off the ICE that had formed on the interior of my drivers side windows. Ha. Fun. I also passed a bunch of people on 93 back to Boulder because I was so used to this driving after being on the highway, these people were being totally overly cautious. In fact, I might say that you have more control (by control I mean you slide less, obviously you want to maintain safe following distances) when youre at speed than if youre sliding around all slowly. Back into Boulder, and cranked the heat! YAY!
ANYWAY. That is the rundown of my winter driving prep. I am totally prepared for all that is to come. Winter Weather Driving Conditions, HA!!!
For any of you that are worried about my carefree attitude about winter weather driving, I ASSURE you that I know all that tricks, and best of all, I know my car and what she can do! Yay Carrot! (her name is carrot these days) In fact, I could do a winter driving tip blog, if necessary. Maybe I will. I did learn to drive in WI and now live in CO, after all.
3 comments:
You are a good writer. If I were a good writer, I'd think of a clever simile - like your a better writer than a driver, for example.
Didn't your car's name used to be Calypso? Is carrot her winter name? That car has see a lot of shenanigans.
I decided that Calypso and El Tigre, both previous names, were not really ever fitting for my car. She needs a cuter, more humble name. Like Carrot. Carrot is her forever name now, I am very pleased and find it very fitting. It's sad I didn't come up with it earlier. There is a certain intuition, instead of logic, that comes with naming things. It just "seems" right.
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