Turn Left for Adventure

When a person arrives at the intersection of our driveway and the county road, should he/she/they turn left he/she/they could be in for an adventure. As I have written before, our house is the last house on the county-maintained road. The county road continues but calling it a road is a little unfair. Actually, it is more of a path or a jeep trail.

The path is maintained by a couple of men/ families that own their heavy equipment. Although it is part of the county road system most of the time it is not used by anyone other than the people that live there.

That said, it is a beautiful, and sometimes adventurous way to get to Elaine's favorite restaurant in Red Feather Lakes Village. If you could get to the restaurant by the way the crow flies, I would guess the distance to be about five miles(+,-). Driving the road is more like twenty-five miles. Those miles driven will take you about an hour, with NO adventure. You just need a four-wheel drive vehicle with high ground clearance and good shock absorbers. Forget being in a hurry. Just sit back and enjoy the views and every bump that will be shaking your vehicle. Look for wildlife, I once saw a black bear on this section of the road. His little chubby black bear butt, just running in front of our truck. Seeing wildlife is not the only adventure you can have.

Recent events make me want to tell a story about the road. Elaine and I were recently at a gathering/meeting with about half a dozen friends. If you are wondering where I got a half dozen friends, they were Elaine's and she let me talk to them. (Just for clarification) Eventually, the conversation got around to what it was like to live in our mountain home. I shared a couple of my thoughts about a couple of snowstorms we have lived through at our house, Looking back at the storms, and how they were adventures.

Let's get back to the road. It should be said that I have always had a four-wheel drive pickup or two (one company-supplied, one I owned) Fifteen years or so ago, Elaine suggested we head to Red Feather for dinner. It was a sun-shiny spring afternoon and she suggested we take THE ROAD. We had plenty of time and agreed it might be fun. We headed down the driveway and turned left. By turning right we could have driven to Red Feather but that adds about twenty miles to the trip and we thought it would be nice to see what was happening on the road. Thoroughly enjoying our decision to take the road and about half an hour into our trip we came across a snow drift in the road. It was decision time, turn around, or drive through the drift. Well, I'm a man, a man with a four-wheel drive truck. I drove into the snow drift. Sadly, that's what I did. I didn't drive through the snowdrift, just into it. I tried to back out of the snow drift. Key word: tried. I was stuck in the snow on a road that it could be hours/days before we would see another vehicle. Did I mention there is no cell service on the road?

Someone had to go for help. Go for help? I mean walking. Well, Elaine wasn't walking. She had a book to read, gas in the truck, and the dog. She was going to be quite comfortable until I got back.

If I stayed on the road, it was going to take hours. I needed to go the way the crow flies, meaning cross-country. Into the canyons, across the forests, across the pastures, over the rancher's fences. What choice did I have?

I don't know how long I was running, walking, and climbing, but I got home. Home, where I had another four-wheel drive pickup. I was sitting in the pickup and here comes Elaine down the driveway. Someone traveling on the road pulled Elaine out of the snow drift. We didn't get to the restaurant, but Elaine spent the afternoon reading sitting in a pickup truck on top of Prarie Divide. She was happy. I got to RUN home across a mountain or two. Adventure, that's what I'm talking bout.

Let's fast forward to 2024. Last Friday, two days ago, Elaine and I were headed out to run errands and eventually end up in a restaurant. It had snowed a little the night before, not enough to plow but a little. Except, the county decided to plow the county road, the part they maintained. They pushed the snow from their road into my driveway. It didn't look very deep. I'm a man. I'm driving a four-wheel drive. A SUV, but still a four-wheel drive. I drove into the county's pile of snow. Key Word: Into.

Thankfully, someone only needed to walk to the house down the driveway and get the pickup to pull the SUV out of the snow. I can't say that I volunteered to walk, but I ended up walking. Thankfully, I was wearing my expensive Merrill hiking shoes with aggressive soles. Thankfully, when I slipped on the ice my head landed on a soft snowbank. Thankfully, Elaine didn't see me fall. I would rather lay in the snow for hours rather than hear Elaine say. "I told you not to wear those shoes." Thankfully, the aggressive soles dug into the ice allowing me to stand up without help.

I got to the house, loaded a chain into the pickup, and went to pull out the SUV. I found a hook under the SUV to hook the chain to. The hook on the chain was too big for the hook on the car. Sometimes, I can be a little lazy. I didn't want to go back to the house for a smaller chain. I had to make something work I had a ratchetstrap. It had a hook that fit into the SUV's hook. I hooked the strap to the SUV and the chain hooked to the pickup. It was brilliant, and time to pull the SUV out of the snowpile. It would have worked if the hook on the ratchet strap had not broken. I asked myself, "Should I go back to the house for a smaller chain or try another ratchet strap?" Well, another strap was the answer. Another Monner snow adventure. They just keep coming. Sometimes it is just better to turn right.

God Bless you, love ya, Buy Yarn.

Our crazy lives!

Monner