Bump on the road to Steamboat

We had a great week in Longmont babysitting for Charley and Josephine. I'll put some new pix up shortly.

Heading back to Steamboat we hit some snow. Not too much, but the roads were covered as we went from Silverthorne towards Kremling. I was doing about 40 down a gradual hill when Joani pointed out that I was driving on the shoulder. The snow had covered the road, so the shoulder and the road were nearly indistiguishable. As I eased the car back onto the road, the car began to slide, and I found myself heading into oncoming trafic and heading across the road.

I managed to keep the car going forward without sliding or skidding, and we just missed (by a few feet...very few) an oncoming car, and we then found ourselves heading off the road onto the opposite shoulder and then onto the roadside. The land leveled off about 4 feel below the road, and the car was still moving at a pretty good clip. Ahead was a deep ravine, barbed wire fences, and who knows what else. The anti-skid brakes had been activated, but the car was still moving. Still under some control, I uttered a few yelps, as the car finally came to a stop ON the edge of the ravine. It is hard to estimate how deep it was...certainly 30 or 40 feet. Plenty of room for a real good rollover had we gone over the edge.

Joani jumped out of the car thinking we were going over. When we didn't, I tried to back out, but got nowhere. Shades of our Duck beach experience several years ago.

I called 911 and the State Police showed up an hour or so later. Sometime thereafter, a tow truck appeared and dragged us back to the road. No harm, no foul, but it was a mighty close call. While waiting for the tow, we observed an accident less than 100 yards up the road. One car turned over, another off the road at a 90 degree angle. They needed ambulance services for that one. Lucky us...no injuries to us, no damage to the car, no damange to the Holiday presents we were carrying. Whew!