Last Saturday I drove to Buena Vista to meet up with my sister-in-laws. One of them lives here in Colorado and the other two flew in from PA. We had a great time exploring the town of Buena Vista and drinking coffees!
We decided to drive an extra half hour to Twin Lakes, CO because its such a gorgeous place. Once we arrived we decided to take a nice road that went up a mountain so that we could get a great view of the lakes below. Boy, let me tell you was it gorgeous!
Here is the view we had!
So after checking out the view we decided to take the loop back down to the main road instead of turning around and backtracking.
Everything was fine and dandy! We were all having a great time! I (and my two kids) were leading in my car and my sister in laws where behind me in their car.
I was enjoying the scenery as I drove down the road. Then, the paved road ended and switched to dirt. It was a narrow road but seemed fine at first, then it got rocky, oh my, it was ROCKY. I should have tried to turn around and head back the other way, but it felt too narrow and dangerous to try and turn around. I mean we were driving down the side of a mountain, and the road was so narrow. If I drove off the side we were probably gonna be gonners. So we continued slowly bumping our way down the road. I got so nervous. I was driving and I don't really love driving in the first place. I started getting butterflies in my stomach and my hand were getting shaky. My hands were gripped tight onto the sweaty steering wheel, and I was sitting forward in complete concentration. I WAS FREAKED OUT! What if I hit a rock the wrong way and sliced a tire. What if I got stuck in one of the pot holes. What if I slid off the mountain side and me and the kids all tumbled down to the highway below where we might cause someone else to get in an accident. I felt like such a small ant creeping my way down the looming rocky road before me. Oh man, and my sister in laws were following me. I felt so horrible. There was nothing we could do. We could not back up, we could not turn around, the only thing we could do was keep creeping down that horrible jaggedy road.
This was one of those situations in life where you would give almost anything not to be there. The only thing you want, is to be on safe ground again, to be in your comfort zone, to be back in that coffee shop in Buena vista drinking pumpkin spice latte and eating a gigantic snikerdoodle cookie with the kids and sisters. Ugh.
I kept on going down the mountain. I had gotten pretty far ahead of my sister in law (Trina) who was driving the car behind me. I thought maybe they were just stopping to take pictures of the nice view. I was not focused on the view at all so I thought it was weird that they would stop to take pictures at a time like this. When I got to a fairly flat spot in the road I called Trina on my cell phone to see if they were coming down.
Then she spoke the most dreaded words. "We are stuck on a rock". My heart sank. I had no idea what to do. I left the car running and hiked back up to see what the situation was. I looked underneath the car. Yeah, it was so stuck. We tried several things to get it unstuck. Nothing worked. We were helpless, which I hated. I don't want to be a helpless female, but there I was standing, helpless, there was nothing I could do to fix the problem.
The only option was to call a towing service. I wondered, though, how could someone get them off the mountain side. A tow truck wouldn't really work, but that's the only option they had. So they started searching for someone to call. Thankfully we had great cell phone service!
Now more then ever I DID NOT want to finish driving the rest of the way down. I didn't want to leave my sister in laws stranded up there. I had to though. So I headed back down to the car and got in. I was even more nervous now. It would have been so awful if I would have gotten stuck too. I was just about down to the bottom. I was so happy and started feeling relieved. I went around a switchback and the road was smoother. Then there before me was a gaping ditch. Ok maybe it wasn't that horrible. But, it seemed huge and scary at the time. I tried to go off to the side. I couldn't make it that way so I backed up. I tried again and then backed up. I decided I must drive halfway in the ditch/halfway out. So my two right tires were up on the side of the mountain and my left two tires were down in the ditch. I almost wanted to close my eyes, but wait that's probably not the best idea. I kept my eyes open and plunged into the ditch. I was shaking and so nervous. But, it was fine and out I came on the other side safe and sound. I made it to the bottom!!! I was once again on a paved road! Me and my children were alive! The car was undamaged! Thank you Lord! I was so relieved that I made it down.
But, then my heart sank again. My sisters were still up there.
So I drove to the town of Twin Lakes just a few minutes away and went into a gas station and asked if there was any towing services available close by. A nice lady gave me somebody's number and I texted it to Laura. They called the people. My sister in laws were stuck up there for about two hours or so. Finally two men came to help in their Subaru cars. I wasn't there to watch them, but I guess they jacked up the car and put something under the wheels so the girls could get off the rock. It worked and a half hour later or so the girls were back down on the main road again! When they finally got down and came and met me at the gas station I jumped out of the car and hugged their necks. It was all I could do to keep from crying, but I was also smiling because it was such a crazy thing we got ourselves into. I guess I had mixed emotions lol.
So maybe it wasn't really all that bad, and yes, we are still alive and fine, but it was so stressful at the time! I'm glad it's over with, but I do miss hanging out with my amazing sister in laws now that they are gone back home! Hopefully next time we will have learned our lesson, and won't try anything quite so crazy ever again!
I hope you enjoyed the story, I tried to write it like it was. Of course there are many more details I left out, but you get the main idea. It is honestly funny now that it's all over with, and it's a memory I'm sure we won't soon forget!
Safely down off the mountain. Laura, Trina, and Leah
All of us!
Hope you enjoyed the story. Maybe it was too dramatic or silly for you, (come to fine out my husband thought it was too dramatic lol). I guess it's definitely now a guy story haha! That's alright though. I had a lot of fun writing it and remembering how I felt!
We are all doing great and adjusting well to the new move! We love it here so much! With gorgeous views like this everyday and almost every evening, I'm not sure how we'll ever get tired of it.
