Me and The Continental Divide (2008)

It was the nature of my job to be “on call” all the time, and ready to travel upon request.  So it was no real surprise, late one Sunday morning, to get a phone call from my boss Mark, telling me that I was going to Denver the next morning.  The CDL driver out in Colorado had “a fear of heights”, although he had driven the vehicle up into the mountains….  I will explain this more later….  So, I prepared to go to Colorado, for an undetermined length of time, or as long as one month.  This involved taking a bus from near my home to O’Hare airport early on that Monday morning, in May of 2008.  I was to fly to Denver International Airport, which I must confess I have very little memory of being in that airport, and I met the technician, the female member of the team, who drove my up to Georgetown, Colorado (elevation 8,530’).  Georgetown is a little over an hour west of Denver’s airport. (see altitude sickness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_sickness )

The CDL driver was not feeling well at all, and did not want to continue driving the rig.  We had lunch and then set out on Interstate 70, heading for Eagle, Colorado.  Unknown to me as we set out was the fact that the Eisenhower Tunnel was closed to vehicles over 22,000 lbs.  This meant that the vehicle I was driving was too heavy to pass through the tunnel.  When I saw the first warning sign I immediately got on the cb radio and called the driver, in the pickup truck behind me…. I asked him to confirm the weight of the vehicle, and he said that we could call it “under 22,000lbs.” and then I saw the Colorado State Trooper parked by the detour sign, and I said, “let’s not, and I will see you on the other side.”

So, I was driving a rig over  (yes OVER) the Continental Divide for the first time in my life.  I had never even driven a car at such and elevation before, so I was more than a little concerned.   My concern was heightened by the fact that the trucking company I had driven for would never have put me in such a position as a less experienced truck driver, but here I was, with no option but to proceed.  Up old U.S. Highway 6, The Loveland Pass.  This is a two-lane, paved highway that few people drive on during a Monday afternoon in May.  In other words it was me in an F550 Ford truck with a 18,000lb trailer on the fifth wheel, and a big rig in front of me, and –a short time into the journey another big rig behind me.  And we were driving into the heavens on a narrow two-lane, with a sheer drop off on the right side…. the three of us all driving down the middle of the road, so as to be a few  feet farther from the edge.

We were in third gear, and could go no faster up the mountain than that,… around 25-27mph.  A slow, scary crawl upwards… I was grateful that the F550 had the capability to keep up with the big rigs.

 

If you have ever seen a movie called The Long, Long Trailer (staring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; MGM 1953) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/  then you have some idea of what it might be like, climbing ever higher into the Rocky Mountains, on a narrow road….  I was NOT laughing.

Then came the downhill side…. but “downhill” makes it sound so small and so simple…. It was hair-raising!  I had no idea whether the brakes on the F550 could take it, no idea when the brakes had been serviced last, and there is no jake brake on an F550.  I decided to mimic the driver ahead of me, though he was in a real semi-tractor, with a jake brake….. but I followed his lead, allowing the vehicle to get up just above the speed limit, and then gently braking it down to 5 miles per hour under the limit, and then let her glide on again. All the while in 3rd or 4th gear.
It turned out to not be as bad I as had feared, and after about 10 minutes I started to relax and look around me at the Arapaho National Forest.  Around the time we arrived in Dillon, not far from rejoining Interstate 70, my other driver came back on the cb radio to see if I was okay.   He later complained that the brakes on the F550 and trailer were “singing”, but really they were fine, and we continued on, working at various locations in the western part of Colorado, for several days before we took the vehicle in to a shop to be inspected and have a tire replaced.

It was scary, driving over The Continental Divide, all by myself for the first time, on a narrow highway, but looking back –it was exhilarating, and I will always wish that I had had someone with me to take pictures along the way.

Somewhere along the way I had picked up a brochure on Altitude Sickness and, sure enough, the other CDL driver had about 6 of 9 symptoms listed on the brochure.... that was what I had been thinking all along.....  I had even stated to my boss that this is not "fear of heights" - this man had physical symptoms that were beyond 'fear'.

I was in Colorado for just over 3 weeks, and had a wonderful time with the coworkers and being a part-time tourist.  I will be friends for the rest of our lives, with Gwen and Alan.  Gwen and I drove through the Colorado National Monument national park at Grand Junction and drove up to Steamboat for an afternoon.  We had a great time getting to know each other and I got to see a lot of Colorado, and made a short visit to Wyoming one memorable afternoon……..