An adventure begins with a single step. Every day we all begin our own adventures, be they the drive to work, the path to lunch, or even just the spectacular toothbrushing action of the morning routine. Sometimes the adventure spills over and splatters all over the place.

That was my weekend.

It all started over a month ago. A friend asked me a simple question: “Would you help me surprise someone?”. What the hell, I’m always up for adventure.

As it turns out, it was cheapest for her to fly into Denver. I agreed to show up last Friday in order to serve as a transport from Denver to Socorro. I might mention I love driving in Colorado. If I thought I could make a buck in Colorado, I would be more than tempted to move there, just so I could drive around in the state. Although Colorado drivers can be annoying. It’s like they don’t understand what cruise control is. This happens to me a lot on I25… someone blows past me, then I pass them, and then we just leapfrog for 15 miles. And I have the cruise set. I try to avoid I25, plus driving through the Springs just sucks most of the time due to all the traffic. Don’t you love tangents? Anyway, Thursday I pack up the car, get the weather forecast, road conditions, decide on a route, and head out, taking Kija’s Subaru. I have decided on my favorite route to Denver, which is going up to Alamosa, then straight up to Leadville, over Fremont pass to the interstate, which allows me to stop off in Dillon for some of my fave beer and then go through the Eisenhower Tunnel, which for some reason fascinates me.

Pretty uneventful through New Mexico. Cell service returns not too long after I entered Colorado, but strangely, I could not make a voice call, although data and walkie-talkie worked just fine. Go figure. Sun starts to set, I’m about 50 miles north of Alamosa, cell service is gone, dark clouds ahead. My last road check on the Colorado DOT page says Fremont pass is open, but has wet spots. I can do wet spots. Weather maps show light snow in the area. As I get near Leadville, I start hitting light snow flurries. I pulled over in Leadville and topped off the tank, now unsure what Fremont pass would be like (it crests over 11,000 foot). I’m not too worried, I had chains in the back, along with water, some manner of food, and a good sleeping bag, in case the worst happened. Plus, I like adventure, remember?

Head out of Leadville. Long lines of cars coming down, mostly due to faster cars catching slower ones on the way down. Road begins to disappear, and I find myself using the old plowed edges and the almost completely white reflector poles to find my way along. Temps are in the high 20′s. Snow is not sticking well, blowing around. I’m going easy, careful to stay on the road when passing traffic blows up snow. Listening to the comedy channel on XM.

I was mostly calm. I think I was going too slow for a few people, but whatever. I finally make it to the interstate, and I70 is about the same condition, only the plows are running harder and its more packed snow than anything. I continue on, pulling over in Dillon at the Dam Brewery, getting Bill a six pack of his fave, and a growler of the stout for me. I had planned on coming back this way on Friday, but I was here now, and I was unsure if the road conditions would deteriorate and prevent me from coming back this way.

Driving on the interstate was interesting. Truckers had to have one drive axle chained up by law, but everyone else was alright. Trucks were taking it easy for the most part. I could see why this part of the interstate is so chewed up in the summer, with all the chained trucks and ice. I took out of Dillon taking it easy, but I kept getting passed. What the hell, I was in a Subie, and everyone else was doing alright. So, I picked up the speed. Conditions remained light snow up to the tunnel, where water and etc tracked into the tunnel made for a bit of an icy path through. Lots of running the window washer to clean off the light dusting of wet dirt cars were kicking up.

On the otherside of the tunnel, higher in the mountains, conditions were getting worse. Blowing snow and etc. I stayed with it, too late to turn back now. As we dropped in elevation, the snow started to let up, and the roads became black again. Traffic speed went back up, and soon I was cooking along at 65. I pulled off at the exit for highway 6, as I could no longer see the road well in front of me.

The headlights on the car had become blocked up with road grime. I used my hand and melt off from a cup of ice to clean them up as best I could, and continued onto highway 6 to Golden, CO. The road was pretty clear, and I really want to drive this highway in the daytime sometime. Narrow, deep canyons and 6 tunnels makes XM fade out a lot, so I switched to the iPod. I arrived in Boulder around 9:30, and proceeded to Keagan’s.

Keagan and I took his car to the Denny’s and had some food. Boulder was 42 degrees and completely clear. Sidewalks still a little icy, but roads were clean. Keagan and I sat and talked for a while about his current girl trouble, and then his phone rang. We headed back to his place, and he pointed out the fold out couch to me and retired to his room for a long cell phone convo with his girl trouble.

I stayed up a while longer, going so far as to VPN into my network at home and getting online purposely to talk to Bill and appear as if I was in Los Alamos to keep the surprise quiet. Excitement building somewhat. I crashed around midnight.

Friday morning I awaken to snorting. I look over in the dim light and there is a large dog sniffing around the bed, obviously excited to find someone out here. The dog slowly mounted the bed and came closer to me to sniff me. I nudged him off the bed and went back to sleep. Noises in the house, people waking up. I couldn’t sleep much longer, and I got up and packed up my stuff.

I needed to be at the Denver airport around 11 so I’d have enough time to figure it out for Mariel to get in at 11:50. I checked the weather. Snow over north Colorado. I70 and Fremont snow packed and icy. 285 over to Fairplay in the same condition. Storm looked to be tracking over Denver and slightly south, so I hoped I could get off the front range before it became worse.

Headed outside. Snowing hard here. 6-8 inches sitting on top of the car, all soft and fuzzy, powder. Clean off the car and warm it up. Keagan told me he figured it would be a good storm, as he says the big ones come in and get stuck on the mountains, pressurize the air on the front range, pushing the air temps up, and then they spill over and dump like crazy.

I leave out, the Subie having no problem with the deep snow, and head to Denver. Going slowish, but a phrase I coined then and referred to often after was, ‘These Colorado drivers know how to party in this stuff’. It mostly didn’t slow them down. I saw a pickup based snow plow off to one side of the road at a wacky angle, stuck. That must have been a story.

I arrive at the airport now 2 hours ahead of schedule. I find a Burger King and have some breakfast, open the laptop. I join a wifi network and discover the high cost. Bah. Switch to bluetooth and the cell phone. Hop online, and look at the weather. Storm sitting over Denver, but as time goes by it’s tracking south. I’m now hoping to hit Walsenburg and go over La Veta pass to the back range and down into New Mexico. CO-DOT says the road is dry down there.

Wait.

Finally, Mariel arrives. I tell her we need to get out of this state and quick. We load up the car and head out into the snow.

Slowish going down to the Springs, where it starts to clean up. I’m feeling hopeful. We pulled off in Fountain and have some lunch at an Applebee’s. Much fun.

Get back on the road, and as we get further south, road conditions start to deteriorate. Still feeling hopeful here. Get to Walsenburg, and the road sign says, ‘La Veta pass is closed due to snow and multiple accidents. No alternate route.’ Nuts.

Fuel up, call Chris. ‘Yeah, looks like the snow ends by the time you get to NM, and the roads say they are clear’. Great. We head south. Roads getting worse. Snow blowing everywhere. A semi passes me and totally whites out my view. Mariel grabs my arm, I grip the wheel. We make it through, doing about 45mph. Cars stuck everywhere, some upside down.

Raton pass is not clearing. We make it over, and stop in Raton. Even with the wiper heaters, my wipers have frozen up. Clean them off. Get back on the road. Talkative Mariel is now getting quiet, sleepy. I decide to take highway 60 over the mountain to Eagle’s Nest and Taos to cut through to Los Alamos. I get about 12 miles in, and the snow is getting harder, and there are no other cars. Not liking it. Turned back to the interstate, hoping that Santa Fe is clear. No cell service so I can’t get a weather update.

As we get closer to Las Vegas, Mariel wakes up, and we notice the snow is getting sparkly. Then the car lurches a few times; apparently there is black ice here. Slow it down a tad. New Mexico drivers stuck off the sides of the road all over, going very slow, not like Colorado at all, but the plows are out in force. Stop in Las Vegas, as the car is making bad noises.

Get out, and discover the wheel wells are packed with ice and snow, no room left for tire travel. Spent a while kicking out the snow, and we get back on the road.

The snow is not letting up. It is now almost midnight, and we were supposed to be in Socorro by now. Pass Santa Fe, cell service returns. We called Bill and pretended to not be there to keep the surprise up. I wanted to swing through Los Alamos, but Mariel wanted to hit Socorro. Almost to Albuquerque we decided to stay in Abq for the night, otherwise it would be a very anti-climatic surprise, as the bar would have been closed by then.

We get into Abq and stay at Kija’s mom’s place with Kija. I died.

Saturday dawns, we switch to my pickup and head south. Get into Socorro early, so we go have breakfast with Chris, and end up going 4 wheeling a bit in his Jeep. I wake Bill up around 11:30, and Chris and I meet him at the bar at noon. Chris brings his camera, and makes a show of it for Bill. Mariel comes in, stands behind Bill. Chris starts snapping shots of the slow surprise. Smiles and happiness.

I sat there for a few minutes, and then Chris and I left to go have some fun, my job now done, which was to deliver ‘precious cargo’ to Socorro. We went out to Box Canyon and 4 wheeled down to the Nancy Mine and took these pictures. Got back, and went to dinner with everyone, and then we went to the bar.

Eric Dang was there, as well as Lewis, Bill, Mariel, and Mike E. The Rudy Boy Experiment was the band, which was Bill’s fave band (and hired on purpose, also a surprise to him). Eric started the night off by buying a round of ‘car bombs’, a shot of Bailey’s in half a glass of Guinness. I had quite a few Guinness that night, and ended up leaving with Eric and Lewis to goto the Camino around midnight, after a brief heart to heart with Bill.

We sat and talked about life, all mostly drunk still, and had some snacks. Lewis and Eric left there around 1:30, but I remained by myself past 2:30. Just quietly sitting, staring out, thinking. A random guy the next booth over started talking to me. Turns out he works for the state highway department, and just recently went back to school to finish is degree. He encouraged me to do the same. More things to think about.

I walked back to Chris’ place, and crashed out.

Woke up the next morning slightly fuzzy. I hung out at the Cap with Bill and Mariel (after a somewhat exciting battery replacement for Bill’s truck), but I really realized it was not my place after they pulled out the laptop to play online together. I was just kind of sitting there, staring at the walls. I had considered staying the whole weekend until Tuesday, but the feeling was leaving me. My server was offline due to a disk crash over the weekend, and I had not gone through Los Alamos as planned to get some equipment anyway, so I had no good excuse to blow off that much time from work. Plus now I was officially playing third wheel here, with nothing else to do in Socorro. So, I said goodbye, and left it all behind me. Or so I thought.

To be continued…