Sunday, September 24, 2017

Getting Settled In.....

The trip here was remarkably UNeventful, except for the YUUUUGE traffic delay in East Vail along the I-70.

The night before, while we were in Grand Junction, a semi that was Westbound on I-70 "lost control", crossed the median and both lanes of the oncoming Eastbound traffic, hit the ditch, flipped over, broke up and came apart, and caught fire.

The trailer was upside down and in big and small pieces, and the tractor was nowhere to be seen.

We just heard tonight that it was further down in the ditch, and not visible from the highway.

Normally, going through East Vail is one of those "don't blink or you'll miss it" drives, but this trip it took us a little over an hour to get through there. And I was low on fuel......

I should have stopped in Vail proper but didn't. We coasted into Copper Mountain with 2 or 3 gallons in the tank.

The other "low fuel" incident occurred when we got off I-15 and on to I-70. There were dozens of gas stations in the 5 miles leading up to the junction around Sulphurdale, but we had about 3/4 of a tank, so I kept going. A few miles East on I-70 I saw the "No Services Next 103 Miles" sign, and knew I should have fueled up.

Oh, well....Press On Regardless!

The country we drove through was absolutely stunning, and my son was just blown away by it.

But man, if you look up the word "desolate", you'll see pix of these areas as an example!

We rolled into Green River with about 1/8 tank. After that, the drive into Grand Junction was quite nice.

ANYWAY....the DIL's brother came by yesterday to move his boat out of the garage here, and then my son, my step-son, and the DIL's brother all pitched in to unload the 6'x12' U-Haul I towed here. We had it emptied out, and things neatly arranged in about 30 minutes, as the trailer was only a bit over 1/2 full.

We finished up just as the rain started to fall, and fall it did.

I had to take my son and wife's BFF to the Denver airport, and with the rain, the road construction, and the Saturday night traffic, it took almost two hours to get there from here.

Coming back, I missed the turn for I-25, and was almost in Boulder before I knew I'd really screwed up. Got turned around, but it took almost 3 hours to get back here.

Took the U-Haul back today, rummaged around in the garage for a while sorting things out, digging out a set of boots that were better than these things I've been wearing since "ever", got out a jacket, a liner, and some long pants, as tee-shirts and shorts with leaky shoes just don't cut it when it's 42* and raining!

Then we had dinner with The Kids, played with baby Noah for a while, and then back here.

If I can figure out how to transfer the pix off my phone to this laptop, I'll post the few I took.

And the dog is settling in, finally. She's back to eating, and seems to have found a preferred spot to do her business when shew wants to go out. BUT....just like back in Long Beach, if it's raining she'll stick her nose out, see it's raining, and then retreat back in.

Wonder what she'll do when it snows?

9 comments:

  1. Sounds pretty typical; glad you never quite ran out of gas. Welcome home!

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    1. Only came close that one time, but I'm rapidly adjusting to the fact that you're not always 5 minutes from a gas station out here.

      And I don't mind saving $1.25/gallon, either!

      Delete
  2. I got a good shortcut to DIA beats the I-70 traffic all to hell. Get off I-25 north of Denver metro at the Brighton exit. Go to Brighton, and take I-76 south (the main hiway in Brighton south will merge with I-76. Stay on I-76 and exit 104th. Go east (left). That will take you straight to Tower Road. Go right, and it will run straight into Pena Blvd. Left on Pena and the airport is just a couple of clicks up. Return same way and avoid that horrible Denver traffic on I-70. Been that way many times, except I go south of 104th to Sheridan where the kids are. You go north and exit off I-76 to Brighton. Nice little town.

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  3. Heh, good luck with the pup in the snow... :-)

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    1. She seems to be getting used to it. I'm here, the wife is here, her favorite doggie bed is here, and when she saw us filling her food bin today her tail started wagging.

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  4. When my fuel gauge hits the half way mark, I find a station.
    As my late father pointed out, they don't burn anymore gas with the tank full. (Technically wrong, gas weighs around 6 pound per gallon so you are adding maybe 60-70 pounds to your vehicle weight)

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    Replies
    1. I told my son I was going to do that, but, uh......I didn't.

      The NEXT time I have to drive that route, I *WILL*!

      Delete
  5. Glad you made it safe. While pulling a trailer with a tall, short-wheelbase Jeep, our Missionary friend "Uncle Bert" jackknifed and went off the road into the ditch. Probably a cow or goat in the road, no deer in that country. Many injuries in the subtropical, but he survived. We had a Willy's "wagon-type" Jeepster as mission-equipment, it was longer but equally and woefully underpowered.
    Oh, those days on that hot Sub-continent...

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Keep it civil, please....

Annnnd.....We Got Zip.....

 Total snow was about 6~8", but half o0f it melted as soon as it hit, and we never had more than 3" on the ground at any one time....