Well, I made it back. I got to Lyon and Wolf’s place at about 12:15 local (3:15 in the morning for me) after being in two near-miss accidents on the highway about 5 miles from here… Let me set the stage…
Yesterday I got rolling at about 7:30. It was raining pretty good so I kept my speed to a safe 65-70 MPH. Well, it continued to rain… From Indiana to here it varied from biblical downpour to blizzard, which is why it took so darn long to cover the distance.
Ok, so here in Colorado it had been snowing, and sub-freezing, for the better part of two days when I got here, so everything was pretty slick, especially bridges and overpasses, so again I was driving according to the conditions and pissing people off by “going to slow”.
Well, my speed and the really sticky performance tires on the Toyota saved me from some sudden deceleration trauma on I-70 just as I came into Denver… There is an overpass at Tower Road that also has a slight right turn in it that had me sliding across three lanes sideways at 50 MPH; narrowly avoiding some idiot who hit the wall just before I got there and was parked in the left lane. Well, as I continued on my way, I saw several more cars come over that overpass and headlights went everywhere. From my vantage point about half a mile down the road it looked like about twelve cars scattered all over the road.
Ok, so I continue on and decide to take the fly-over from I-70 to I-225, taking it at an appropriately safe speed – 25 – much to the annoyance of the car behind me. Just as we reach the downhill side of the fly-over the car in front of me, who had insisted on taking the ramp at 60-something goes into a spin and suddenly it’s as if someone took their opening shot in a game of pool… Cars everywhere.
I tiptoe my way though this newest disaster and down onto I-225 where it looks like the after picture from some apocalypse; there are about twenty police cars and another dozen emergency vehicles scattered about, over turned cars everywhere, people standing around wearing blankets… Tis a bad scene.
I wisely get off the highway at the first exit, Colfax, and take surface streets to the house here… From several miles away I could hear the sirens from all the equipment still moving to the scene…
And that is, as they say, that. I got here, spent an hour or so talking with Lyon and downing a shot of scotch, then collapsed into bed.
So, I’m here and in one piece, and it’s a new day…