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mistressofmuses) wrote2021-03-30 09:06 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2021-03-30 09:06 pm
March 24, 2021 - Denver, CO to Las Cruces, NM
I *think* I'm going to split the stuff about my NM trip into three posts. One for getting there, one for the time there, one for getting home? We'll see.
So here's the post about the trip down there!
We'd seen some weather forecasts that included the potential for some really bad winter storms down around Raton Pass. It's not a long pass, but it is winding, and difficult one if the weather isn't cooperating. So that's why we decided to leave significantly earlier than originally planned: 6:00 am, straight from my mom's house, rather than 9:00.
We wound up getting the last of the stuff into the car and pulling away from her house at around 5:50, so... good job, us!
Taylor and my mom split the driving. I... don't drive if I can help it. (I am the stereotypical Queer Who Does Not Drive.) Taylor started off, since my mom had gotten her second Covid vax the day before, and we wanted her to get a little extra rest if she needed it.
We mostly just listened to Taylor's music on shuffle at that point. (Fortunately they have very similar taste to mine, though skewed a little extra toward video game scores.)
The road down to Colorado Springs was pretty shitty, but not impossibly bad. Being out that early was nice, because at least we didn't have traffic to make it worse.
The snow was fairly variable, but the clouds were really low. This is a picture from around the Co Springs area. Blurry, through the window of a moving car, but gets the idea of the low clouds across.
We'd made it down to Pueblo by about 8:00, which was pretty good time, even for a clear day. Unfortunately, after that the weather started to get worse.
Again, quite obviously taken through the car window, but there was something very eerie about the massive wind turbines half-hidden by the snow and fog, until they're just suddenly RIGHT THERE.
The scariest part of the drive was probably a snow plow towing a trailer, which got on the highway and immediately started to wildly fishtail. We got past them, but it was pretty scary to watch (though nothing bad ended up happening!)
Around 9:30 we hit Trinidad. We stopped for gas before heading through Raton, and my mom took over driving. The little gas station we stopped at was... real classy.
Look at this classy-ass selection in the vending machine from the rest room! LifeStyles variety pack of condoms (sold in rotation), Premium studded condoms, and Horny Goat Weed? Pretty great.
These three signs were all posted around the little coffee machine area. Mostly it was impressive that all three had *different* misspellings:
"Inconvinence"
"Inconvienence"
"Attentiom"
(Not as good as the series of misspelled ads in a local 7-11 a few Christmases ago, featuring our ever-favorite "hot sandwiche toady.")
The roads had gotten pretty bad before Trinidad, but somewhat magically, the snow eased up, and getting through Raton wasn't bad. It had been plowed, though only a single lane, but that was enough to get us through!
I didn't get any real pictures at that point, but the fire damage from last summer was really obvious and painful to see.
We made it over the New Mexico border around 9:50. The road conditions stayed decent (still single-lane, but decent) for a while. Then the snow started picking up, and the road conditions got worse again. It was pretty white-knuckle for a while.
This mostly captures just how white everything was - ground, snow, sky, distance. And granted, while I spent a lot of time in NM it was almost exclusively summers, but this was still a weird sight for me!
We stopped for gas around the Santa Fe area, and Taylor took over driving again.
I read some of Seanan McGuire's Patreon short stories aloud. (I really like reading aloud, ha.) Then we swapped back to music for a while.
The snow cleared up a bit farther south, and it was a smooth trip the rest of the way.
The total time on the road wound up being about 10.5 hours, which was really good considering the shitty weather. Despite it being earlier than we'd anticipated - around 4:30 - we didn't go over to Debby's house. They'd just gotten back from Oregon the day before, and weren't expecting us until Thursday. Plus we were tired from the early morning and day on the road, so it was better just to rest for the evening.
So here's the post about the trip down there!
We'd seen some weather forecasts that included the potential for some really bad winter storms down around Raton Pass. It's not a long pass, but it is winding, and difficult one if the weather isn't cooperating. So that's why we decided to leave significantly earlier than originally planned: 6:00 am, straight from my mom's house, rather than 9:00.
We wound up getting the last of the stuff into the car and pulling away from her house at around 5:50, so... good job, us!
Taylor and my mom split the driving. I... don't drive if I can help it. (I am the stereotypical Queer Who Does Not Drive.) Taylor started off, since my mom had gotten her second Covid vax the day before, and we wanted her to get a little extra rest if she needed it.
We mostly just listened to Taylor's music on shuffle at that point. (Fortunately they have very similar taste to mine, though skewed a little extra toward video game scores.)
The road down to Colorado Springs was pretty shitty, but not impossibly bad. Being out that early was nice, because at least we didn't have traffic to make it worse.
The snow was fairly variable, but the clouds were really low. This is a picture from around the Co Springs area. Blurry, through the window of a moving car, but gets the idea of the low clouds across.
We'd made it down to Pueblo by about 8:00, which was pretty good time, even for a clear day. Unfortunately, after that the weather started to get worse.
Again, quite obviously taken through the car window, but there was something very eerie about the massive wind turbines half-hidden by the snow and fog, until they're just suddenly RIGHT THERE.
The scariest part of the drive was probably a snow plow towing a trailer, which got on the highway and immediately started to wildly fishtail. We got past them, but it was pretty scary to watch (though nothing bad ended up happening!)
Around 9:30 we hit Trinidad. We stopped for gas before heading through Raton, and my mom took over driving. The little gas station we stopped at was... real classy.
Look at this classy-ass selection in the vending machine from the rest room! LifeStyles variety pack of condoms (sold in rotation), Premium studded condoms, and Horny Goat Weed? Pretty great.
These three signs were all posted around the little coffee machine area. Mostly it was impressive that all three had *different* misspellings:
"Inconvinence"
"Inconvienence"
"Attentiom"
(Not as good as the series of misspelled ads in a local 7-11 a few Christmases ago, featuring our ever-favorite "hot sandwiche toady.")
The roads had gotten pretty bad before Trinidad, but somewhat magically, the snow eased up, and getting through Raton wasn't bad. It had been plowed, though only a single lane, but that was enough to get us through!
I didn't get any real pictures at that point, but the fire damage from last summer was really obvious and painful to see.
We made it over the New Mexico border around 9:50. The road conditions stayed decent (still single-lane, but decent) for a while. Then the snow started picking up, and the road conditions got worse again. It was pretty white-knuckle for a while.
This mostly captures just how white everything was - ground, snow, sky, distance. And granted, while I spent a lot of time in NM it was almost exclusively summers, but this was still a weird sight for me!
We stopped for gas around the Santa Fe area, and Taylor took over driving again.
I read some of Seanan McGuire's Patreon short stories aloud. (I really like reading aloud, ha.) Then we swapped back to music for a while.
The snow cleared up a bit farther south, and it was a smooth trip the rest of the way.
The total time on the road wound up being about 10.5 hours, which was really good considering the shitty weather. Despite it being earlier than we'd anticipated - around 4:30 - we didn't go over to Debby's house. They'd just gotten back from Oregon the day before, and weren't expecting us until Thursday. Plus we were tired from the early morning and day on the road, so it was better just to rest for the evening.
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But in the daytime I'd never seem them look kind of creepy!