I forgot...Night on Pike's Peak

Sorry all my faithful readers, there will be no pics in this post.
This entry happened between the trip to South Dakota and the trip to St. Louis. I forgot to include it when I wrote the last blog.
So, it was Jason and I's 1 year anniversary. We decided we would go for a drive in the mountains. Since we work so much, we wanted to be outside as much as possible...be careful what you wish for. We headed up to the mountains about 2 p.m. It was a gorgeous day, a little chilly, but not snowing...so that was good. We headed up to the Crags Campground. It is on the backside of Pike's Peak. We had been camping there last summer and it is gorgeous up there. You have to take a very windy dirt road up to the campground. At the bottom of the road, everything was fine. Big puddles in the road so we were have fun splashing mud all over the Jeep. We get about half way up the road and there is a Menonite Camp with cabins and picnic areas. There was a bit of snow on the road here, but it had been mostly plowed and smashed flat by other vehicles. So, we kept going. Just a little aside here, we have driven on many snow covered roads in the Jeep and she handles like a champs...so we had no worries. About half a mile farther up the road, the snow started to get a bit deeper, but you could still tell lots of vehicles had been up here. So...we kept going. Another half a mile farther and we got stuck. Snow covered roads can be very tricky. If your vehicle slides even an inch to the side of the road, the snow is not packed enough and you sink. So, thats what happened. Jason pushed us out and we decided that we should probably turn around before we get really stuck. But, the snow was only packed in one small area so there was not enough room to turn around. We decided the only thing to do was go a bit further to the campground and turn around there. We got about 20 more feet and almost got stuck again so we decided we might be better off just backing all the way back down. So, we back about 25 feet and get stuck. And I mean STUCK!! It is about 4 p.m. by this time and really cold at this elevation. We are surrounded by snow and pine trees. There is a partially frozen stream running in a gully. The gully is about 6 feet deep and runs next to the road. So, we try everything to get the Jeep out. We tried to stick pine boughes under the tires to get some traction. Then we try rocking the Jeep...nothing. We jacked up the Jeep with the little tiny tire jack and put more pine boughes under it, lower the jack...nothing. So, we dig some sand out of the freezing cold creek and haul it back out of the gully and try to put the sand under the tires...nothing! By this time it is starting to get dark and our tires are in such deep holes that we have no hope but to get some help. Of course, our phones don't work so there is no calling anyone. Since we were only coming up for a drive around, we have a bottle of water, thin sweaters and thank god, a blanket was still in the car from our trip to S. Dakota. So, we decided that it would be too dangerous to walk in the dark, just to see if anyone was at the Menonite camp. We also knew that there were lots of car tracks on the road so we figured that the next day being Sunday, other people would be up the next day. So, we spent a very long, very cold night in the Jeep. Jeep are not made for sleeping comfortably. It snowed a bit during the night but not enought to cause any more trouble. We slept maybe an hour and a half, the rest of the time was spent shivering. In the morning, we decided that we would walk to the Menonite camp. Even if no one was there, we hoped we could at least find a shovel or something. We are so cold by this time that everything is numb, which makes it hard to walk. We are almost to the camp when another Jeep comes driving up the road. Our Saviour!!! I have never been so happy to see another Jeep. It is two guys who were coming up to do a little cross country skiing and camping. They were prepared! They gave us a ride back to the jeep, assessed the situation and got out their supplies. They hooked a chain to the back of our Jeep and tried to pull us out with their Jeep. That didn't work cuz they couldn't get enough traction either. So, they attached the chain to a "come-along" which is basically a hand held wench. They attached the wench to a tree that was behind and to the side of the jeep. Then they just wenched it back and sideways until we were out of the holes. By that time, another Jeep had pulled up behind them with a guy and his dogs. All in all, it took about half an hour to get out. After thanking the guys profusely, we all backed down a ways and then Jason and I turned around and went down while the other two Jeeps kept on going up. Lesson learned: do not go to the mountains unprepared. The guy in the second Jeep said that he had spent a night stuck in that same area before he bought his first wench. So, we will be buying a wench asap...definately before our next mountain adventure. We made it back safe with no injuries and slept the whole rest of the day. Stay tuned for more Adventures in Colorado!

Trip to St. Louis

Jason, Toby and I just got back from 2 weeks in St. Louis. Jason went to learn a new division for work. I got to hang out with Isa and Johnny while Jason worked. I got to spend a lot of time with Johnny and we had a blast. Such a great kid and so well mannered! We got there the night before Easter so we got to spend Easter day with Isa and her family. We got to join in the Cascarones festivities. (In case you are unaware of what that is...It is a Puerto Rican tradition where they fill emptied out eggs with confetti and then smash them over eachothers heads.) Tons of fun! Jason had never seen it before so he had a lot of fun. Johnny made Jason his "new best friend" and spent most of his time smashing eggs on Jason. In the end we were all covered in confetti and pretty tired from chasing eachother. We went back to Isa's and had a delicious Easter Dinner. Toby had a lot of fun while we were there. Isa has 3 cats so Toby did not get a minute of rest while we were there. Between chasing cats and playing with Johnny, Toby was exhaused by the time we left. He slept all the way home.

We are back in town now though, time to get back to work.

Road Trip to South Dakota

Jason and I went to South Dakota at the end of March, 2007. We went for work, but had a little time for some play. In all honesty, I didn't know Mt. Rushmore was in South Dakota. I don't know where I thought it was, but I never thought it was in South Dakota. If you have never been to South Dakota...or Wyoming for that matter, there is nothing in either one of those states. Nothing but fields and lots of wind. Driving there, we thought we were going to get blown off the road about a dozen times.
We took a day and drove to Mt. Rushmore. It was a nice day to go. The weather was real nice and it was before the busy season so there were not many people there. It was impressive, but not somewhere you can spend too long at. We were there for about 45 minutes, took Toby for a nice walk and then left.
Next we drove to Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. It was not all that impressive either. A huge gambling town.
We spent the rest of the week working and then drove back through and awful snow storm. We were driving south on I-25 and for some reason they had not closed the roads. They ended up closing it right after we made it through. Thank god for the Jeep. There was at least 6 inches of snow on the road. No plows or other cars, it felt like we were driving a snow mobile. The only way we knew we were on the road was by watching the little posts that mark the edges of the highway. It took us a while to get home going about 35 mph for half the day.
I don't think I will ever find a need to visit South Dakota again.