Hockey: Greeley, Colorado, Part 1

What a weekend! Whew, I'm worn out! Not that hockey tournaments are so exhausting, mind you. But the WEATHER...

Now, Greeley is about a 6-1/2 to 7-hour drive from us.... in normal weather. It took us about 8-1/2 hours to drive up Friday night! It wasn't snowing when we left home, but the sky looked threatening, so I decided to drive over LaVeta Pass instead of going through Eagle Nest and Cimarron. The winding roads over to Cimarron did not appeal to me, especially if it was snowing. Besides, if it were snowing there, that meant that Raton Pass would have snow, too. And Raton can be miserable with snow, many times just shutting down. At least LaVeta Pass is kept up better (why, I have no idea; I-25, which goes through Raton, I would think would be kept cleared better than LaVeta).


So I headed straight up to Questa, leaving the dark skies of Taos. Just past Questa a hole in the clouds opened up reavealing a sparkling blue sky with a huge rainbow! It was gorgeous with the contrasting dark purple-gray clouds all around us, but here we were driving in this perfect little spot of brilliance. As we got closer to Ft. Garland, it was like we were driving toward this cloud wall -- and then we were suddenly back in dark and gloomy skies again -- dark enough that my headlights came on. There was slushy snow at the top of LaVeta and it was lightly snowing. But other than that, the drive up to the pass was just fine. I pushed that button on my new truck for the wheel sensors (forgot what it's called; all this new fandangled technology on vehicles!) and it worked like a charm through the slush. 'Course, I was going super slow, too, as I still don't have that comfortable feel for my new truck yet.


After crossing over LaVeta, the sky cleared up again and it was another gorgeous drive!


Until we hit Colorado Springs, that is.


And that is where I learned about what an "ice storm" is! Now, I have never been in an ice storm before, let alone drive in one, but here I was driving in one for my first experience. Traffic was slowed to a crawl and became bumper to bumper. It was like a fine drizzle of rain, except it was sparkly white in the headlights and every tiny particle of it stuck to everything they touched -- and those tiny bits were ALL ice!


Yuck.

Okay, back to my new truck. My truck has all sorts of "stuff" on it that I really have no clue yet what it all is. It has an "off-road" package plus a "cold weather" package on it that I couldn't even begin to tell anyone what all the stuff is in those packages and what they do. I was only interested in the 4x4, under-carriage coating, and super-duty starter and battery. That was about my limit of knowledge on wanting those packages.

So I'm exploring all the "stuff" on my truck as I'm trying to drive through all the ice. You know, figure out how to keep the windshield clear, the mirrors clear, and stay on the road. Plus stay WARM. The temperature outside read something like 20 degrees (on my truck, of course! :) ). I figured out that that "no-skid wheel sensor" button or whatever it is, just wasn't enough for the roads any more. So I flicked the truck into 4-wheel drive. MUCH better! The truck was just purring through the ice. I also figured out the defrost. The windshield PLUS side mirrors defrost! And I don't mean just hot air being blown onto the windshield, either (there's a different button for that!). It's got something that actually warms the entire windshield! So the mirrors were clear (the backs had over 2 inches of solid ice on the backs, though!). And the windshield did fine. BUT the wipers kept icing up. Not too bad, but still had patches where the ice just wouldn't melt, but not enough where I had to stop to scrape the ice off of them. I'm sure the warm windshield had a LOT to do with keeping the wipers somewhat free of ice. And that warm windshield is what kept all the ice particles melting that hit the windshield. And the inside of the truck was just toasty for us! And the windshield didn't fog up, either! And my butt and back were all nice and toasty, too -- heated seats, you know! :)

So my job was left to driving defensively (LOTS of cars off the road) and trying to figure out where we were going. All the road signs of course were covered in ice, making it hard to read the exits. So even though the truck was doing a great job, I was still "white knuckling" it while driving. It was dark, too, and I have a hard time seeing at night...

Which meant I was only concentrating on the road and ignoring Derek. Now, Derek is a GREAT traveller, and great at keeping me company. But with my focus on the road and weather, I couldn't even begin to tell you what he was talking about! I just mumbled the obligatory "uh-huh" now and then. But obviously it wasn't enough because every once in awhile I would get, "Mom, did you HEAR me?" Uh, noooo...