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Published: December 15th 2009
Take that Coppers
The white out, wind blown snow was fo' real...my car turned white!Mark Posting:
It's true. The road to Las Vegas is paved in snow. When you're driving from Jackson, WY. In December. Obviously. And believe it or not the road from Vegas to Jackson had snow on it too. Oddly enough, not in the same locations. I'm getting ahead of myself though. I can imagine many of you are probably asking, why on earth did Mark and Liz go to Las Vegas? For those conspiracy theorists out there let me state quite clearly that we did not visit any of the hundreds of chapels in Las Vegas nor are we compulsive gamblers. Now that the record has been set straight let's talk about why we
really made such a long and unnecessary trek.
Plain and simple, it's because Liz is an amazing friend. Her former roommate, Jenna, was running in the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon on Sunday the 6th and Liz wanted nothing more than to see her run. That and she wanted a break from the sub-zero temperatures we had been waking up to for most of the week. So on the morning of Friday the 4th, Liz, out of the blue, suggested we drive to Vegas. She
Yippie Cay Yay...Mc-E-D's
For all those little cowboy and cowgirl wannabe's had already looked at flights but times and prices were not favorable. Naturally, my initial reaction was utter dismissal. I thought to myself, "it's only 11 o'clock, she's not awake yet." But she persisted and I gradually softened my stance. Liz pointed out that soon we would be virtually snowed in and our travel options would be severely limited. Valid. She further pointed out that my car gets great gas mileage so cost of travel would not be too bad. True. And she had taken the liberty of reaching out to a family friend living in North Vegas and we had a place to stay. Okay, sold.
Liz was an award winning member of her high school debate team so you can imagine my record in arguments. No doubt she did an admirable job in this instance. But really it was my love of road trips, the desire to visit any of the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, or Zion National park, and the thought of being stuck in a 6 foot snow drift for the next several months that had me raring to go. It was determined that we would leave bright and early Saturday morning to beat all
Grand Canyon
This was probably right about where the rain/snow line started on our way home the traffic we would surely face. Liz went into Jackson to go for a swim at the rec center while I packed my bags, made sandwiches, popped popcorn and sliced apples. That's what you get when I'm on your team, a motivated contributer. Take note potential employers.
Upon arriving back at the house Liz provided me with information that further validated our decision. Jenna was engaged! Her boyfriend (now fiance) proposed when they arrived at the hotel in Vegas. Not only would we be going to cheer her on but also to celebrate.
As you all well know, Liz and I are akin to Ellen and Clark Griswold when it comes to travel. The sun had not even come up on Saturday before we experienced two National Lampoon type events that nearly derailed our plans. Liz and I went to bed prepared for our planned 4:30 departure: our bags were packed and ready to be placed neatly in the car, food was made, ice was bagged, Liz picked up four books on CD for our listening pleasure, the coffee maker delay brew was set, and my cell phone alarm was programmed for 4AM. However, the problem with living
Welcome to Arizona
Fitting that we only got a fleeting glance of the sign cause we were barely in Arizona in a valley is that my cell does not get a signal and will go into power save mode. I knew this was the case but never considered that the alarm would not go off. Tragedy was averted thanks to the forces of good or possibly a sleepless deer. We cannot say for sure what caused her to do it but Liz awoke at 4:35 nonetheless. It is my contention that her actions were nothing short of heroic as she showed great situational awareness. No one would have blamed her for glancing at the clock and covering back up at such an ungodly hour. Instead, with her mettle being tested she rose to the occasion as she so often does - potential employers take note! Liz tapped my shoulder and "I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter." Sorry, wrong story (that was a holiday joke by the way). We did get our butts in gear though and were on the road by quarter after five!
Here's where the title comes into play. The first half hour of the drive went smoothly as we exited Jackson via the Alpine pass, which divides the Targhee and Bridger
National Forests. Shortly after we crossed through the sleepy town of Alpine snow started falling. Initially, it was little more than a dusting but the wind picked up as did the accumulation of snow. The speed limit was 65 with the exception of when we passed through a town center but the weather made it difficult to safely travel at that rate of speed. It should be noted that my Civic does not have winter tires at this point in time. Several vehicles more equipped for driving in the snow simply and literally left us in the dust. Yup, each and every time an oncoming or passing vehicle went by we were left in a cloud of snow which momentarily downgraded our visibility to mid-hood. Liz wanted to stop at a diner for an hour to have breakfast and allow the snow plows to get out and clear the road. I wanted to press on and, to be honest, there were no viable options that early in the morning. So we forged ahead and, naturally, conditions worsened. The road, already covered in snow, began to undulate with more troughs than crests. Most of these troughs came at the end of
Another Look at the Tetons
It's hard to take a bad picture of this range a severe slope. After a while Liz and I openly questioned whether the sun would ever come out. I am not exaggerating when I say it appeared to be getting darker. I'd be lying if I said we didn't consider turning back. But then we'd still have to go back through this monster and tackle the crests that we'd already put behind us. I cannot say when it happened exactly but the light did start to break through, the snow tapered down if not off, and the road became both flat and clear. We hoped the worst was behind us.
After we stopped briefly to use the restroom and fill up Black Betty with everything she deserves (that would be the lowest octane unleaded fuel available) our nerves settled and the drive progressed with significantly more alacrity (a GRE word that Liz asked me the other day!). A CD of David Sedaris short stories about the holidays had us chuckling all the way to the junction with I-80 in Evanston. Interstate 80 was a welcome sight as it qualified as the first gen-u-ine highway on along our route. It was here that we made a quick stop for breakfast
Big Horned Sheep
It's that speck hanging out at the edge of the peak before re-inserting our audio book and riding off into the sunrise. We crossed into Utah where there are some beautiful snow covered peaks reaching across the horizon complimented by several small and serene bodies of water. Even though we were never within 50 miles of Salt Lake City, anytime we passed one these lakes/ponds, Liz would ask if it was Salt Lake. The only time that was a remotely reasonable question was as we passed Utah Lake but after consulting a map, even that was quite a stretch. With the exception of a 15 mile stretch of road upon entering Arizona from Utah the remainder of the drive was pretty but uneventful.
Including the hour that we got back when we crossed into Nevada from Arizona the drive took us a total of 10 and a half hours. Given the start we got off to we considered that to absolutely be a great success. Our spirits were high even if our energy was low. Viva Las Vegas!!
Liz is going to cover our Vegas experience in a separate blog. I'm going to move straight to our trip home. Initially we had planned to do the full 10+ hour
Granite Creek
I went cross-country skiing with Liz's aunt and uncle this weekend...I think I'll be going back here, it's beautiful return trip in one day, on Tuesday. However, troubling weather forecasts brought about an itinerary change. The one day marathon would now be a two day leisurely jog with a stop coming in Salt Lake City. We still had every intention of spending Monday being proud Americans while visiting one national treasure after the next. Hoover Dam, damn right! Grand Canyon, grand indeed! Zion National Park, hi-ho Zi-yohn! Unfortunately, the pouring rain before we were outside the Las Vegas city limits and a late start made it necessary for us to head straight for the lake. As it stood we would likely not arrive until 9PM.
I took the first leg of the drive which got off to an amazing start. Why? Because we fortuitously crossed paths with a Dunkin' Donuts. Some people might say plugging it into the garmin would detract from reasonably calling it a chance encounter but I disagree. You see, I have plugged DD's into the garmin before and come up empty. A prime example was a little more than a month ago in Denver when I went in search of what should be Massachusetts' state coffee and was instead directed to a Pollo Loco or some such nonsense. America Runs on Dunkin's? Maybe, if America itself were a donut and middle America were the hole.
Back to the drive. It was raining in the desert and we fully expected snow as we made our way into southern Utah. We stopped in Cedar City for gas and to answer nature's call. To that point we had briefly passed through a band of snowfall but the weather had been mostly cooperative. Liz took over the driving duties and would man the controls right through to our destination. The remainder of the drive was alternately smooth sailing and blustery, snowy conditions. It was only a couple days earlier that we'd passed through this section of road unabated. In fact, the red rocks had made the area seem warmer than it actually was. Fortunately traffic was light along I-15 and Liz did an outstanding job managing the conditions being thrown her way.
As we passed through Provo the white steeple of the church of latter-day saints stood out in the skyline. However, there was a colorfully decorated spot up the hill to the east that caught my eye. I didn't point it out to Liz because she would have had to crane her neck 135 degrees just to catch a glance. There were several trees - the type that might line Main Street in Anytown, USA - wrapped individually in red, blue, green, purple, and white lights. Nothing extraordinary but done so cleanly that it had me impressed.
That night we took advantage of my accumulation of Starwood hotel points by staying in the local Sheraton. I'll leave the details of our stay to Liz, only saying that I was extremely impressed with the accommodations and satisfied with the value received for the points spent.
We woke up the following morning to near blizzard conditions. Our only goal was to arrive back in Jackson before dark so we never intended to be up and out early in the morning. By the time we slid out the hotel driveway the snow had slowed but road conditions were still not great. My experience driving in the northeast proved it's worth as we maneuvered our way back to the highway. Not fully knowing what we would face as we closed in on Jackson Liz and I made the decision to purchase cables for the front tires. We have put off the expense of snow or studded tires so the cables would be a cheap, if only temporary, alternative.
Before too long the sun was out and the highway conditions were much improved. The most excitement we had involved passing two giant snow plows - twice. Shortly after making the pass the first time around we stopped at a gas station. We were quickly back on the road and it was not long before we caught back up to behemoths. The second time came just as we reached the border of Idaho so both trucks turned to cross the center of the highway turning back toward the frozen spudra (a play on tundra?).
As nice as it was to have the sun out and shining, it ultimately had a negative impact on the drive. It wasn't particularly warm but the sun's rays are stronger at altitude. Strong enough to cause some of the snow to melt and the roads to be wet. Instead of the white out conditions we experienced on the way down, the road was constantly spitting dirty water on the windshield during our return. It was not even five sprays after I said to Liz, "I hope we don't run out of wiper fluid", that we ran out of wiper fluid. Liz didn't particularly notice or care and fell asleep. I held out for as long as possible before it become time to make a maintenance pit stop - gas, restroom, occasionally a drink or snack and, in this instance, wiper fluid.
The last 90 miles of the drive included a passage through the mountains similar to the one we'd had problems with a few days earlier. Conditions were much better this time around and this pass came down from the north, as opposed to the southern route we'd taken on Saturday. There were some steep inclines and declines, particularly as we drove along the Palisades Reservoir. For about 15 miles as we drove along these winding roads we were behind a pick-up that was stuck behind an 18-wheeler. The pick-up eventually passed the rig and, even though we saluted him for his bravery, decided it was best not to follow suit. Our patience was rewarded as the truck eventually turned off somewhere in Alpine, WY. That turned out to be our final obstacle as it was little than a half hour before we arrived back home.
It was a lot of driving for a quick stay in Vegas and visit with Liz's good friend. Given the choice I'm not convinced I would make the decision to put my body, mind and car through it all again. Liz, of course, can speak for herself.
A few quick notes from the rest of the week:
- I saw my first ram last week but unfortunately I was out for a run at the time and did not have my camera with me. It stinks too because this bad boy was only about 30 feet away!
- Chopping wood is awesome. If you want to feel powerful I highly recommend taking a few swings at some logs with an axe. Find a crack, hit it and the wood will split with surprising ease.
- The snow has arrived! Today is the fourth day in a row with snow and we are supposed to get more tomorrow and Wednesday. Of course, snow and skiing go hand in hand so it's about time to start getting out there. I went on a recon mission Saturday with Liz's aunt and uncle to find out if a particular path had been groomed. It had not but we cross-country and skate-skied it for about an hour anyway!
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wendy
non-member comment
Wow!!
You two are amazing! I hope you are keeping copies of your blogs. I just love reading them.................... Have you made a snowman yet? love mom