So, we get up Saturday morning with plans to head up into the mountains so Sam and Jamie can snowboard, and Neely, Lori and I can do some snow-shoeing around the lodge. The weather reports said there would be a couple of inches of new snow at the higher elevations, so we headed out in our Mercury Villager. About 20 miles into the 55-mile trip, we hit heavy snow and a traffic back-up, well before the Eisenhower tunnel. We averaged about 8 or 9 MPH from this point on, and the snow kept coming. We made it to the ski resort after lunch and after filling up the gas tank.
In the parking lot, we put on snow gear, and then took the shuttle bus up to the lodge and rental area. I got an intense burst of anxiety in the lot, and then again walking up to the rental shop--shortness of breath, etc. Classic Acute Mountain Sickness stuff, but I didn't know it then. The base of this resort is at 10K feet, a full mile higher than Denver and Golden. I did know enough to not go snow-shoeing, though. I sat myself down in the lodge bar and watched Missouri get beat by Kansas while the others did their things.
When they came back, we took the shuttle back to the car, and it would not start. The gas line was blocked, and AAA said they could not get to us until the morning. With Neely and Jamie's pets locked in their basement with no back up person to care for them, we had to get someone back to Golden, so Jamie found someone in the lot who could give him a ride back, and Neely, Lori, Sam and I went back to the resort to get a room.
My shortness of breath and anxiety were reaching staggering levels, and during the night I could hardly sleep at all--insomina being another feature of AMS, though we didn't know it at the time. Meanwhile, it continued snowing--10 inches on Saturday and more to come Sunday. There was talk that I-70 was gonna be shut down. And the temperatures were forecast to drop all the next week, leaving little hope of the the gas line thawing without being put into a warm garage for a few hours.
The next morning at 6:00 I called AAA again, and they said they could come around 9:30, so all we could do was wait. Well, that's all the others could do--my AMS blossomed into a full-fledged panic attack that I could not talk myself out of. I was literally insane, and I knew it and couldn't do anything about it.
Finally, at 9:30, Lori and I went to the car to meet the AAA truck. When we got there, I cleared off the snow, got in and tried the starter and it worked! We called Neely and Sam, picked them up, and hit I-70 for a bumper-to-bumper (pictured, including the tunnel), four-hour trip back to Golden.
Once safely back, we exchanged Xmas gifts (Bacci liked the wrapping and the boxes), packed the car, and then Lori, Sam and I hit the road at 6:00 pm Mountain Time. We were heading for North Platte, NE and a Holiday Inn there. We ran into near white-out snow in NE Colorado, but managed to get to the hotel by about 11:30 CST.
The next day, Monday, we got up at 6:00 and hit the road, getting Sam back to Bradley in Peoria at 5:00, too late for his 3:00 class, but in time for his 6:30 one. Lori and I got back on the road for Chicago, getting in at about 9:30.
No more major road trips for awhile. And I think I'll try to keep to the lower elevations.
No comments:
Post a Comment