June 6, 2022 … Monday (84 degrees/cloudy/stormy skies in the distance)
And here we are … again.
I left Littleton on a sunny May morning back in 2012 (Chicago-bound) and arrived back again on another May morning … ten years later … with snow in the forecast. The major difference I notice is that the trees are bigger. Oddly, much of everything else has stayed the same.
Over two weeks ago I stuffed a suitcase, a few favorite small plants, some valuables, and the dogs (Annie/12 yr old/93# lab and Bea/19 yr old/8# toothless chihuahua) into Gus the Fiat and was blown off the island, CO bound, by high winds. And, here we are back again … a place that I landed, by all intents as a temporary summer stop-over back in 1979, on yet another May morning. Funny what life holds for you.
My last post was from our hotel room in Ontario, OR after 11 hours in the car and 468 miles under our proverbial belts … the dogs and I were, well, dog-tired. The floor was too slippery for old Annie and she splayed out like Bambi on the ice. Poor baby. Somehow I wrestled her baby walrus body up onto the bed with me and there she stayed – snoring away – until I woke her in the morning. It had been an easy drive – except for the high winds battering the car for at least 8 hours. But we had long stretches of lonely highway (which I love) – just us and all that nature surrounding us. Unfortunately, because of the high winds and the severe dust storms/dust in the air – we didn’t see much of anything distant. Every once in a while I’d get a glimpse of some mountain or formation – but much of the day it was a blur … akin to bad pollution or smoky skies.
We left the little (clean/thankfully) motel on Thursday morning around 9:30 and thinking I’d put in another 500 miles and call it a day – we started out. I didn’t really want to put in any more miles than that since the day before Annie and I were stiff from sitting so long and 10 hours is LONG ENOUGH driving. Bea didn’t seem to mind the crate (as I had worried about) and she slept most of the trip. More winds, more blur and far more traffic accompanied us along our journey. Somewhere before my turn off to I-80 eastward, my sister texted me asking where I was going to stay to wait out the storm.
WHAT? WHAT STORM?
Apparently, the local radio stations (when I could get one) said NOTHING about a storm coming! I was a day ahead of a whopper of a spring storm that would bring 2 feet of snow to the mountains and 7+” to the Denver metro area. Fabulous. Just GREAT! Exactly what this little trip needed … snow!
So, I pulled off for a bit to do a little research on what was coming behind us, and sure enough, my only option was to just DRIVE and hope I got into Denver before the storm. I was NOT going to hole up with two dogs and a moving van awaiting my arrival, waiting out a storm in some flea-bag-no-tell-motel in Podunk, Nowhere unless I really had to!
After a long first day – I wasn’t really cherishing finishing the rest of the drive in one sitting but … I-80 was already closed to smaller/lightweight vehicles (me)/too windy – so, we had to go south to Salt Lake and up and over the mountains (which I did NOT want to do). But, my only option. It added hours to our drive … longer, uglier, and more congested. So fun! And, as it is – I hate that drive! It took us over 3 hours to get through the SLC area … 7 lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic. My creative swearing got a workout! It was seriously heinous!
I was about an hour west of the CO border when night fell (I do NOT do well driving at night) – but followed some truckers (w/their high beams) and was only solo for about 15 minutes of the remaining 6 hours! I felt safer behind them and their additional headlight beams helped a ton! When I lost one/I seemed to get behind another soon enough. I was very thankful for their (unknowing) guidance and help! There was a lot of traffic (storm runners, like me) but I stayed in the right lane and went only as fast as I wanted … a lot of curves along the way, so 45 mph was my max at times. I get nervous driving in the mountains – (PTSD from a really awful drive over the pass one winter) – but in the dark, I couldn’t see the drop-offs and just kept telling myself we were driving flat roads with meadows where sweet cows were sleeping. Nothing like sleeping images of sweet cows to soothe one’s nerves. (Unless it’s French Bulldogs in pajamas!)
With no rain/no snow and no problems (phew!) … we made it without any worse weather or incidents … but it was 17 hours in the car and more than 1000 miles for Day 2. INSANITY! We drove into the driveway at 3am … to find out that the kids didn’t tell me where they hid the key – so, we were locked out! More creative swearing! I ended up at my sister’s and got a whopping 1.5 hours of sleep before the movers were to arrive.
But, they didn’t! It started spitting at 5:30 am (just as I was falling asleep) … and it was light rain and would have been MUCH better than the heavy/sloggy slush/snow-rain that was falling at 1:30 pm when the guys finally showed up! They didn’t seem to care if ALL of my stuff got wet … I guess being HIGH will do that!
Anyway – everything is here/nothing damaged or broken … and it’ll be all good/fine once I’m all unpacked. The 6 U-Haul pods have been unloaded and are gone from my driveway and the dogs and I are now tucked (quite literally) into the 830 sq foot house in downtown Littleton. It’s a charming 1911 cottage that we purchased almost 19 years ago and renovated to be Tim’s office. Our plan was to keep it for 3 or 4 years and then sell. Again, funny what life holds. It’s gotten plenty of use over the years by this family and it’s now my turn to live in it/love it before the ol’ bulldozer gets at it. It has 2 bedrooms, bath, living, dining, kitchen w/laundry nook and ONE (count ’em 1) closet. All small rooms but it’ll be really darling once I’ve unpacked (and purged) the remaining 138 boxes that have taken over most of the floor space!
I’ve rearranged the furniture about 18x trying to fit things in and I think it’s okay … we’ll see. The yard is cute and fenced … have some plans for it … and there is a nice back deck and front porch. So – it’ll be good. And, bonus – friends and family!
I have seen some friends, some family, and have shared some long-awaited hours with my mom and am slowly settling in. So many boxes to go! I now have TV but no internet/computer service yet so (darn it anyway) I’m at Starbucks (once again) and am enjoying a little A/C and a frapp. It’s warmer than the island ever is (with exceptions) so, along with the altitude (which is kicking this lobster’s butt), the heat (meaning anything over 55 degrees) is taking some time to get used to. But, that’ll happen and it’s good to be here.
And, it’s so nice to sit out in the evenings (and not be cold or wet) … the air feels so good and has been filled with cricket-song and omg … train whistles!