Today was one of our two big driving days on the trip. We were planning to drive from Colorado Springs to Christine and Eric's house in Las Vegas all in one day, which is about a 12-hour drive, not counting stops. Not a fun day, but doable, especially because we've driven much longer days (20 hours in the car) on the way back from Florida. We started out pretty early in the morning, stopping to get breakfast on the way out of town. Our plan was to go up to I-70 and take it across the Rockies to Utah, and then go south on I-15 to Vegas. Everything started out great, and we had this beautiful view of the mountains as we left Colorado Springs.
But while we were in the Rockies, I first noticed the snow ahead of us. This is when Meghan started to worry.
It didn't take long to get into it and for the roads to get bad. At one point I was driving 15 MPH, just trying to ensure our car stayed on the road, as visibility was very low due to the blowing snow and the road was fully covered with snow. Fortunately we have an SUV, and there were smaller and lighter cars going quite a bit faster than I was, so I wasn't too worried. I never panic in these situations, and I knew if I just drove smartly, we would get through it with no problems. We don't have any pictures of it at its worst because our photographer was a little preoccupied with our safety, so no one was thinking about pictures.
After we went to the top, through the Eisenhower Tunnel, and back down (topping out at an elevation of about 11,000 feet), all in bad weather, we finally passed through Vail, which was pretty much the worst. Again, though, we were never in real danger beyond what one experiences when driving in bad snowy weather, but it made for a tense drive. As we descended further, the roads cleared, and we were better able to enjoy the views around us. Meghan was enjoying it in the way that she never wanted to see a flake of snow again in her entire life.
The kids were blissfully unaware of the whole thing, and Joshua even slept with his Animal Blankie over his head for a large portion of it.
Eventually we made it to western Colorado, where there was no snow and just straight, clear roads. And later once we made it to Utah, we even got to enjoy a beautiful, blazing sunset. We eventually made it to Christine and Eric's house at 11pm Pacific, several hours later than anticipated, but we were just happy that a long day of driving was done and that we had arrived safe and sound.
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