Our travels part 3

It snowed all night. Our room has a view of the mountains, it was beautiful. Katie was very excited, it has been a while since she had been skiing. This year she was going to try snowboarding. I had been considering joining her, but I had some serious reservations. Someone of my years and girth are better suited to hot chocolate and books in the ski lodge. I had decided to try it anyway.

First we had to get there. There were 3-4 inches of snow on our car. Ice scraper? Hmmm, not standard issue in Houston. Katie and I proceeded to try and get the ice off by hand. When we were almost finished we found someone at the hotel who gave us one. Now to get the car started.

You have to understand, our car, a 98 Ford Expedition has been our trusted steed for 8+ years, never once giving us any trouble. But it was used to hot weather at sea level and now it was 15 degrees and over 8000 ft. It started but would not hold it’s idle, I had to keep my foot on the gas until it warmed up, then we left with a clean windshield and started up the mountain pass.

There was a fair amount of ice and snow but for the most part we were able to maintain our place in the procession up the canyon. There is nothing but mountains, rocks and trees for the next 18 miles or so although they look stunning with all the new snow and the bright blue sky. Eventually we hit the town of Nederland, it has 2 gas stations and no lights. From there we turn onto the road that will take us to the Eldora ski area about 5 miles away. About half way there we see a High School out in the middle of nowhere. We pass a sign that says “chains or adequate snow tires required”, we press on, and arrive safely 15 min later.