I turned and looked at the clock. I didn’t know where I was, but for some reason I had this pit in my stomach. I was about to go up a very large Mountain range and it scared me to death. Of course I couldn’t tell Jilly, I just had to keep it to myself so as not to scare her. But I was literally scared to death. Would the rig make it? Will the pass be open? If it was open but still hazardous, could the love of my life drive the X4 in it? Could I drive the rig in snow and ice? I had once before, in East Texas, but that was flat ice and snow driving. This was going to be a very interesting day. I made Smokin Hots coffee, and took my shower. This was about to get very serious. This wasn’t a game. This is a very large vehicle, and I was about to take it over a very big snow capped Mountain.
Which direction? 40 or 70? I checked the road reports. Wait? 70 is open? Jim Girodo was right! We were going 70!! That was the only logical conclusion. Yes it would take an extra hour as we had to travel south a bit more, but 70 was open and there were still no reports on 40. We headed for Dinosaur Colorado where the road split, 40 or 70. We took the road to 70!!
We made it to 70 and I have to say I have never seen anything like it. If you ever have the chance to see this wonder of American ingenuity, Interstate 70 will make you proud. All I can say is wow!! And I didn’t get to see it all because my eyes were glued to the front, but its a wild piece of road, and it’s absolutely beautiful!
We got beyond the “beauty” of 70 as the elevation started to get serious. We were already at 6k feet or so once when we got there, so it didn’t take much to add to that “sucking wind” sensation. 😉 The tension was growing as the snow got deeper, were we going to be able to get through the pass?
Fuel is always an issue in situations like this. You need to make sure you have enough to get over and back down a mountain with contingencies. Well… I thought I had enough. I had no idea how much fuel is used when climbing a huge mountain range in a motorhome, but ours uses a bunch. Lots, copious amounts!!!! We were in trouble and I didn’t yet know it.
Jilly and I were discussing on the Walkie Talkies that it would really be nice to drive up into Vail. We had never been there. We evidently were going to be driving very close to it, so we were discussing how it would be cool to park the rig and drive up into Vail? Well, evidently I70 drives up into Vail because all of a sudden, there it was?? The infamous Vail that we have seen on TV for years was right there!! How cool is that??? It was beautiful!! However?? The rig was dangerously low on fuel. The fun of seeing Vail went out the window. Where was I going to find fuel in Vail? Due to expense of land, I’m assuming that the condo’s and hotels and individual homes there are so close together because there is only a limited amount of property available. That meant, Gas stations were very small and did not accommodate motorhomes. BTW, why weren’t we seeing other motorhomes? Were we in a no-mans land? Surely not?
I told Jill that I had to stop NOW. I had no idea what was in front of us, and I did not have enough fuel to make it down the mountain. Some of you might think, well its all down hill from there. NOT!! The rig has an incredible feature and it is called an engine brake. That engine brake uses fuel unlike normal brakes, so I needed fuel and fast!!
I had no choice. I had to make a decision. Pull in now!! I approached this small gas station in town. I assessed the situation. Could I get under the gas pump cover-awning, whatever you call it or not? I decided I could. Now, could I get between the pumps? Ummm…. No idea. I went for it anyway. I was not going to take a chance on running out of fuel with a big diesel engine. I proceeded forward.
I turned into the station. 20 feet to my right was the front of the building, 10 feet to my left were the pumps. I had to figure out how to traverse the pumps and the building while turning between two of them without hitting something.
Evidently, by the way people were looking at me, I was not supposed to be there. DUH!!! I swerved to the right as far as I could, held my breath and turned a hard left. I made it between the pumps, but I was angled between them, blocking both sides, So I pulled forward and began to then back up as I angled my way back towards the diesel pump. Fortunately I have a back up camera because I literally got within 5 feet of the window of the station.
I looked at Lucy and breathed a sigh of relief. “Lucy? Everything is going to be fine.” I got out of the rig and realized that I was a good 15 feet from the actual pump. My heart sank. “OK, I’m going to grab the pump handle and see how long it will stretch to my gas tank” If it didn’t stretch far enough, I was done. There was no room to move this rig. This was the absolute closest I could get without backing into the front window. I stretched it as far as possible, and if I arched the fuel flow and aimed well, I could get fuel into my tank. LOLOL
Before I was told to leave, I was able to arch about 10 gallons into my tank. I was thankful and happy and ready to get to the Vail Pass and begin our journey to Boulder. We were going to make our dinner that evening.
Whew! Wow o wow!