Yesterday was my Breck day. Going to work on my mad snowboard skills. Conditions were AWESOME!!! Huge beds of fresh powder to plow through. Oh by the way, I managed to "intentionally" get air for the first time ever on a snowboard. First time I didn't quite stick the landing. Picture if you will this "old gray" face planted in a pile of snow. But the second time was flawless and if I'm not mistaken I think that was Shawn White yelling, "DUDE!!" Ok, maybe that was just the little voice in my head. It was such an amazing day of snowboarding.
So, you'd think that would've been my big highlight of the day, right? Getting air and all. Oh no, that was just a little footnote to the real excitement of the day. Heading up to Breck it was starting to come down, snow that is. Conditions on the roads weren't all that bad but for whatever reason by the time I was driving into Breck my SUV decided it was time to do a little fishtailing. Nothing too severe and nothing I couldn't steer out of.... until I got near the resort. Going at a snails pace my lovely, not-so-little auto decided to execute a pristine 180. Fortunately the truck in front of me saw my automotive dance and pulled out of the way as I slid right in front of him into a snow bank. Colorful metaphors to follow, I found myself thoroughly stuck, only feet from where I needed to park. One of the Breckenridge ski patrol guys happened to drive by in his pickup and helped pull me out. So I only lost about 45 minutes of board time but now I had in the back of my mind that if I had this kind of trouble GETTING to Breck, what the hell will it be like trying to go home with all this snow coming down? Well, I'll tell ya.....Heading home it wasn't all that bad, at least leaving Frisco and making my way all the way up to the Eisenhower tunnel. The roads were surprising clear so I was thinking I'll make it back in one piece. Ha, how foolish. Out of nowhere, just before I got near Georgetown there was all this "mush" of snow covering the roads. Really? You guys plow every inch of this freeway and you conveniently miss a spot that's all down hill heading into Georgetown? Well, long before things got interesting I put myself in the slow lane, shifted down and was driving slower than lose laboring trucks you see. But just as I was thinking all will be fine since seeing about a mile ahead of me clear roads, my SUV once again decided to make my life interesting. This time I'm talkin' SERIOUS fishtailing. I didn't completely spin around but I managed to drift into the other lane nearly getting bulldozed by a monster 18 wheeler. I felt surprisingly calm and once I righted the vehicle I took the exit into GT to avoid the rest of the mush on the freeway. The roads were clear on the other side of the on ramp so once I was back on the freeway it was smooth sailing. It wasn't until I got home that I got a wicked case of the shakes.
So now my little life lesson, after this near death experience, is to get some frickin' snow tires! Yeah, slap my ass and call me Betty. I just managed to avoid the expense for the first three years we've lived here but now it's pretty much a necessity. I tell you, if I had ANY idea back in OC when we bought the Explorer that we'd be living in Colorado I would've definitely gotten a 4x4. Hey, I love my winter sports but sliding down a mountain in a two ton Ford toboggan isn't my idea of fun.
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