A Visit to Colorado: Prequel

Last October, Southwest offered incredibly low fares: $25 per person one way between Albuquerque and Denver! We couldn't pass up the opportunity, so purchased tickets for early February. We made the trip last weekend, marveling every few minutes that we were flying to Denver and back for a grand total of $100.

Adelaida watches Dale shovel snow during a previous snowstorm

The trip started out rather inauspiciously. We were scheduled to leave Thursday morning. On Wednesday, Dale went to work as normal and I stayed home with Adelaida, who was recovering from a pretty nasty stomach virus and wasn't yet able to return to school. The snow started falling early Wednesday morning, and by noon the freeway had been closed due to inclement weather.

(For those of you unfamiliar with our home, we live in the East Mountains outside Albuquerque, literally across a mountain range from the city. Albuquerque and the East Mountains are connected by two roads, I-40 and Old Route 66, which run parallel to one another just a few feet apart through the Tijeras Canyon pass. When heavy snowfall or bad weather threaten the pass, I-40 and Rt 66 are often closed -- sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for up to three days.)

So, Adelaida and I were at home in the East Mountains; Dale was at work in Albuquerque, we were scheduled to leave the Albuquerque sunport in less than 24 hours, the freeway was closed, and the snow was still falling.

We've had a very wet winter; the snow started in mid-October and we've had snow on the ground almost continuously since then, with a brief snow-free period at the end of November

I was worried that the freeway wouldn't be open in time for Dale to come home that evening, and he had to be at work early (like 4:00am early) the next morning to work a bit before we left. Also, we had to take the pups to the kennels in Moriarty (even further east from Albuquerque, and an area that often gets a lot of snow) before going into Albuquerque. So, I hastily packed up clothes and toiletries for myself, Dale, and Adelaida, gathered items for the pups, and decided to leave Wednesday afternoon to avoid getting stuck at home.

The only problem: I was already stuck.

2:00pm: I first tried to drive out the driveway, which ended up being a bit of a mistake. I didn't wreck the car or anything, but I came pretty close a few times. Upon leaving the garage, our driveway has a significant incline terminated by a 90-degree angle. So, we have to drive up a hill, then turn left at the top of the hill to continue out the driveway.

This picture was taken in early December, which was the last time we could see any amount of ground through the snow!

I measured the snow when I started trying to get out, and we had eight inches on the driveway (the driveway had been plowed after the last storm by our wonderful neighbors, so the eight inches was all new). I tried a dozen or so times to get the car up the driveway and around the bend, but never managed to have enough momentum to get all the way up. So, I put the car back in the garage and started shoveling the driveway. I focused first on the hill and the curve, assuming that if I were able to get up the hill and around the curve, I'd be able to get out pretty easily.

4:00pm: Ninety back-breaking minutes later, I had a reasonably wide track shoveled up the hill and around the curve. (Adelaida was taking a nap at this time, so I was able to work unimpeded.) I got back in the car and tried again, and after several unsuccessful attempts found myself at the top of the hill, pointed toward the driveway. Success! Afraid of losing my momentum (I'd learned a valuable lesson on the cross-country truck trip of 1998), I continued toward the driveway and got about fifteen feet before getting stuck. All the time that I had been shoveling the driveway, the snow had continued falling, and since I hadn't shoveled anything beyond the curve, the rest of the driveway had well over a foot of snow on it. Our car apparently has a clearance of less than one foot, and when I got out to look at the car, it had a pile of snow in front of it up to the hood. I had been "plowing" the snow with the car!

when people hear that we live in Albuquerque, they often think of a desert like Phoenix: hot and dry. In fact, we have a pretty substantial winter and often get a lot of snow; in March 2005 we got 36 inches in one storm!

By this point I had shoveled about 20% of the driveway and didn't think I could shovel the remaining 80% before our plane left the next morning, but I really didn't want to be stuck so I started shoveling again. So, I called a neighbor and asked him if he could plow our driveway; he was willing to do it, but wouldn't be available until about 5:30, so I got back to work with the shovel. This time I decided to just scrape off the top four or so inches of snow and leave the rest, except around the tires where I had to get down to the gravel.

5:30pm: After another hour of shoveling snow and "rocking" a car all by myself, the car was free and I was able to get it out to the end of the driveway. I didn't want to put it in the road (we're at a curve and I could just see someone losing control at the turn and sliding into the car), so left it a few feet in the driveway. By the way, Adelaida had woken up just after I got the car stuck, so she spent most of that hour playing in the back of the car while I shoveled snow!

Maggie and Murphy struggle through snow as deep as they are tall

Finally I was ready to leave, almost. I still had a few things to pack from Adelaida's room (I didn't want to pack them while she was sleeping), then had to carry all the luggage out to the road, take the pups out to the road, and finally take Adelaida out to the car. It was 6:00 and I had been trying to get out for over four hours!

The pups' kennel closed at 7:00, so I had to get to Moriarty within an hour, which I was able to do -- just barely. The kennel is usually about a thirty-minute drive, and I admit I was a little scared to be driving all alone (with a baby and two dogs who wouldn't stay in the back of the car) on deserted roads, some of which hadn't been plowed very recently, in the dark in a snowstorm. Visions of getting stuck in a remote area without cellphone coverage haunted me on that drive. As I passed several vehicles stuck in the snow on the side of the road (or right in the middle of the road, on at least two occasions) I also really missed having a functional all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive vehicle.

I got to the kennel at 7:00, dropped the pups off, and drove back into Albuquerque (normally a one-hour drive), arriving at almost 9:00 that night. I was hungry, exhausted, and very sore, and Adelaida was hungry. I'm sure neither of us was very pleasant to be around that evening! Dale had gotten a hotel for us and was out picking up food when we arrived. We basically brought all our luggage in to the hotel, ate (and food had never tasted so good!), and went to sleep. Dale got up early the next morning to go to work; I slept in a little longer, then rearranged and repacked our luggage, picked Dale up at work, and drove to the airport.

It was a rough beginning to what turned out to be a really great trip -- but more about that later.