Sunday started out as a good day. (considering our vacation was over) We got an early start on the road with only 8 hours of driving ahead of us... or so we thought. Debbie did call me in the morning warning me of the poor Saturday conditions which closed the highway, but the conditions were suppose to get better on Sunday. Plus I figured we left early enough that we could get past Vail (the worst part of the drive) before the sun started going down. The first 6 hours went exactly as planned. We were on track for a 7 1/2 hour trip. Then we hit the snow. We moved inch by inch as all the holiday traffic condensed together. Long story short, the I-70 closed at Silverthorn which meant we were stuck with thousands of other people in a small resort town. Hmmm.... not good.
After making phone calls and realizing there was no way out and all the hotels had been booked, we took out last option... the local rec center. The red cross set up a relief there providing cots, blankets, and girl scout cookies. So with a bunch of other people, seen below, we set up camp.
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse... they get better. After about an hour of gym time, a local highway patrol officer announced the highway was open again and we had the first notice. We quickly packed back up and got on the road again.
We left at 9 a.m. and got home at 11 p.m. Fortunately, I procrastinated an assignment due on Monday and had to work on that once we got home. Smart.
We also learned our lesson about snow in the Colorado Rockies. Don't mess with them.
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Saturday, December 13, 2008
