Week 15 - Snow

I spent the first 18 years of my life living in Phoenix, and during those 18 years there was no measurable snow fall.  Since the ranch backed up to South Mountain, sometimes if it was real cold they would get a few flakes, but it never stuck. 

So the first time I actually remember playing in the snow is when I was in high school. One of my boyfriends and I went up to Northern Arizona with a 3-wheeled ATV that Papa Gates bought. We spent the afternoon playing around on ATV in the snow.

When I was 18 years old, I spent one semester at Dallas Fashion Merchandising College. Snow is not common in Dallas, but it does snow more often than in Phoenix. On January 11th, Dallas had a significant snow fall. Since the residents of Dallas were not used to snow any more than I was, we were given a snow day and didn't have to go to school or work. So we went out and played in the snow.  I don't remember why a group of us went out in a car, but we did.  When we came back, there were no open parking spots in the covered garage. So the driver started up the ramp to the second level. As we approached the top of the ramp, the car started sliding backwards down the ramp.  Good thing there were no other cars sitting at the bottom of the ramp.

In 1978, I flew to Denver and spent a weekend with my friend Lee.  We were roommates at the Defense Language Institute at the  Presidio of Monterey in 1973-74. Lee took me skiing, the first and only time I attempted it. We rented skis in Denver prior to driving to Keystone. When we arrived Lee enrolled me in ski school while she and a friend took a lift to the top of the hill.  The ski instructor loaded us onto the gondola and we rode to the top of the bunny hill. When we got to the top, I managed to fall flat on my face instead of skiing off the lift. Those who know me know I'm athletically challenged.

Other than a few days of light snow when I lived in Maryland, I never spent a winter when I had to worry about driving on snowy roads.  Most of my experiences with snow have been in Colorado when I was visiting my sister Shirley.  

In September 1996 Burt and I booked a timeshare in Beaver Creek Colorado. We had snow 2 or 3 days during that week.  I remember seeing brightly colored pansies surrounder by snow.  When we were driving back to the Denver airport I remarked on how bad the visibility was, soon after I realized it was snowing out. 

We spent one Thanksgiving in Cedaredge with Shirley and Johnny.  Sure enough it snowed while we were there. The day we left, there was about a foot of snow on the ground at the Montrose Airport when I parked the rental car.

The most memorable visit to Shirley and Johnny was I think in the winter of 1983.  Shirley and Johnny had recently built a log cabin and the family decided to drive up and see their new house.

There were ten of us: Dad, Alma, Carla, Patrick, Elaine, Jim, Mike, Shelly, Bill and I. We took 2 vehicles Dad and Alma's Cadillacand their motorhome.  

We drove up taking the route through 4 corners; we made a short stop at the monument along the way. I don't remember exactly where we stopped for the night  but it must have been somewhere cold based on the picture I took of Bill and Shelly at the restaurant where we ate breakfast before getting back on the road.

Somewhere along the way Alma made a bet the Jim that he couldn't make it through a day without saying "shit". As we approached the log house, Jim was driving the motorhome. After turning off the highway, there was an unpaved driveway up the hill to the house that was flanked by a ditch of sometype. As Jim started up the driveway, the motorhome started sliding toward the ditch. We all had a good laugh at Jim's expense that he couldn't make it an hour much less a day without using his favorite cuss word.

There were so many of us, Bill and I elected to sleep in the motorhome. Actually it was more like "Freeze" in the motorhome. Dad had the motorhome fueled in Phoenix before we left for the trip. The fuel was not winterized and it froze. Without power, the temperature in the motorhome dropped below freezing. All the soda that was in the motorhome froze as well. That was probably the coldest I have ever been. Thank goodness we only had to ensure the freezing temperatures for the first night; Dad and Johnny took the motorhome into town and had it serviced with winterized fuel.

The highlight of the trip was a day we spent tubing. Jim and Elaine took some of the kids skiing.  The rest of us stayed at Shirley's and spent several hours tubing down the hill.  When I first got into digital photography, I took some of the photos and created a photo slide show.  Here are the slides I put together: