Day 9 July 13
Today can be described in these words: Exhilarating, white knuckled , nerve racking and frustrating!
Driving in the mountains isn’t for the faint of heart. Steve wanted to go on this trip because he
dreamed of driving on the Million Dollar Highway also known as the Red Mountain Pass with an elevation of 11,018 ft. As mountain passes go this one is a winding road with steep drop offs and narrow shoulders for 45 miles! Although nervous, Steve had studied this pass at home and was determined we could to do it even in an “A”. We left the B & B at 7 so we could drive it without much traffic. Steve was elated that we made it! The car ran good and it was a relatively easy drive to that point.
As Steve white knuckled the rest of the 45 miles I found myself inching closer to him when we were at the edge, as if my life would be spared if we drove off the road! Ha ha! Once again the scenery was too beautiful for words and even though we took dozens of pictures none will do them justice.
I consider my marriage to Steve a fairly good one except when it comes to communication. We’re usually in the same book, but rarely on the same page. Once we were down the mountain Steve planned on driving to Silverthorne, (in another mountain range). I thought it was straight east and we would go around the rest of the mountains. (my fault for not checking the CO map that Steve did bring along). We were driving east to the next town of Gunnison when we saw a huge sign saying the highway we were on was closed ahead. This is when the rest of our day went from good to bad!
A highway roadworker held a sign telling us to stop, so we asked him what we should do. We had to turn around and go back to the town we came from and go north. The highway we were then on lead to the freeway and as much as I hate freeways when driving the “A” I was willing to do it. Still not knowing where we were going we followed the road to another town and gassed up.
As we studied the map, a woman told us to take the Gunnison pass detour if we wanted to get back to Gunnison. What a detour! We were once again on a winding mountain road with narrow shoulders and steep drop offs, except this was 50+ miles!! 2 ½ hours later we reached Gunnison and that’s when I saw Silverthorne was just off the freeway that I was willing to drive on! Grrr, I was frustrated!
After filling the car with gas again, Steve started it and we heard a clang, clang, clang like someone hitting a pipe with a hammer. We pulled over and the external hose that Steve had added to tell the water level in the radiator had come apart.. He fixed it and up the mountain we went again. I don’t know how far we went when all of a sudden smoke was billowing out of the engine and the water gauge was at 210! Luckily, we were able to pull off the road in turnout area. Steve jumped out of the car and opened the hood. The hose had blown with hot water spurting out everywhere! He grabbed a towel and when he opened the radiator it blew like Old Faithful. He was lucky not to have gotten burned. The hose had actually split so Steve cut it shorter and tied it to a piece of copper tubing with dental floss and a rubber band! He’s creative and it works! As we pondered what to do about getting more water for the radiator a CO CDOT man pulled up behind us. Next thing I knew he and Steve drove off and came back with a couple of gallons of water. Less than a ½ mile behind us was a spring coming out of the rocks! A pipe had been put into the mountain and that made it easy to fill the jugs. Once again we were off and running.
It’s all becoming a blur, but after driving more miles, we stopped at another gas station and then turned to go up yet another mountain. We hadn’t gone very far when Steve saw he had no oil pressure! Again, we were lucky that a turnout was right in front of us. Steve always carries extra oil, so he dumped 2 quarts in, but the dip stick still showed no oil. The only thing to do was to go back to the gas station and buy more oil. This time, though, we didn’t head up the mountain, but instead tried driving to the nearest town, going “east”. Unfortunately, we didn’t get far when blue smoke was coming out of the tail pipe. Stopping once again, Steve looked under the hood and found the tube for the oil was split. We were in a dead zone, so I couldn’t call Triple A, but a nice woman stopped to see if she could help. As it turned out Steve rummaged through his supplies that he did bring and cut some tubing from something and did his magic.
With these problems that will need to be fixed tomorrow, we were finally done with the mountains and trying to go to Silverthorne. I started calling the next town for a motel and everything was booked. I finally got a room in Cannon City. 2 more hours of driving and we stopped for the night at 8pm! 13 hours on the road and most of it felt like we were going in circles, but at least all our problems were fixed, even if only temporarily, and we were safe.
I know some of you may not believe in God, but we do and I feel that all the things that happened today, we were in His care. Steve was always able to fix the car, we always had turnouts, a spring for water and we didn’t fall off the mountain. So for you that have prayed for us, I think God answered your prayers. And I thank all of you who sent good thoughts our way and wished us luck. I’m sure they helped ,too. We appreciate it all. Thanks!
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