Colorado
My Spring Break trip to Colorado I don�t know where I should start telling you about my trip to Colorado. There was so much stuff. I think I will start at the beginning when everything begun.The day before we left Bill and I checked the weather forecast for the following days in Colorado. It said that we were supposed to get some cloudy weather on Wednesday, Thursday we were supposed to get snow and Friday and Saturday nice sunshine. I thought we would have an awesome week down in Colorado.The next day Eric (host brother) had a Track meeting. He got 6th out of 16 people in high-hurdles. He was kind of satisfied. After the meeting, we left for Colorado. On the way to Colorado, we dropped of Jonathon in Des Moines. He stayed at Sue�s for a few days of his Spring Break. We drove for 4 hours until we arrived in Aurora, Nebraska. It was a nice "hotel". We had two houses. Bill and Sue had one and Eric and I were in one. The next morning about 8 a.m. we were back in our nice, conformable van on the road. We had the goal to drive on the way to Winter Park. On the way, we listened to the radio because we were interested in the road conditions. It was about 40 miles before Denver where we suppose to have the first snow and the first icy roads. It was correct. About 40 mile we had icy roads and bad conditions. It was slippery. It was about an inch of ice on the road. After a wile, we saw the first cars in the ditch. We helped a woman who was too fast and slid off the road. The woman used our cell phone and it took a wile until we could go on. But it was fine that we helped her. Our big van didn�t have any problems on the icy roads because Bill is a good driver and slowed down whenever it was necessary. The first traffic jam was about 30 miles before Denver. It was crazy. Nobody was moving anymore. At the side of the road, were huge mountains of snow and a lot of cars were totally covered with snow. We pulled off the road at a little town where everything was closed because of the snow. It was chaos. There was a strong snowstorm, which made it impossible for some people to get out of their houses. It was unbelievable. I have never seen so much snow in my entire life. So, we pulled off the highway in hope to find a different street to Denver/Winter Park. We drove around and finally, after an hour, we found a different street to Denver. At 5.30 p.m. we arrived in Denver without any big troubles. We needed gas and we tried to find a place to buy our lift tickets. We found a gas station quickly but it was impossible to find a place to eat or a place where we could buy our lift tickets. Everything was closed because of the snowstorm from the day before. We tried to drive to our condo in Winter Park but the Interstate I-70 was closed. It was the only road into the Rocky Mountains and to Winter Park. So we turned around and drove back to Denver. In the city, we saw how heavy the storm really was. Trees were broken down; some streets were so full of snow that it was impossible to rive on them. We saw a lot of car dealers and all the cars were totally covered with snow. We tried to find a hotel where we could stay the night but a lot of hotel was already booked out. All the people who tried to travel through the Rocky Mountains were stuck in Denver. Finally, we found a nice hotel where we stayed the night. We had the hope to drive to Winter Park the next morning but the interstate was still closed. They shot down some avalanches which covered the street now, so nobody could passed by. So another day of waiting and hope that they would clean the street the next day. We had to change hotels because ours was already booked out. We changed to the other side of the road. We already lost one day of skiing. We drove around in Denver but everything was closed because of the snow chaos. The airport was also closed and thousands of people were stuck. Some had to sleep in the terminals. It was crazy. Then, after the second day stuck in Denver, we were able to travel on the interstate I-70. We packed our stuff and left the hotel as early as possible. We drove a while but we got stuck in another traffic jam. It was no wonder because there was so much traffic on the interstate. I got the first impressions of the Rocky Mountains. Unbelievable, enormous, indescribable, awesome. I can�t explain it. You have to see it with our eyes. After a while the traffic jam got less and less and we could go on. But then we got the next bad news. The Berthourd pass was closed because of the enormous masses of snow. This pass is the only way to get to Winter Park. We decided to drive to Silverthorne. That�s also a big ski place in the Rocky Mountains. We rented skis and finally, at about 12.30p.m., my dream came true: skiing in the Rocky Mountains. The area where we were at was called Copper Mountain. It was awesome. Perfect snow, a little bit of sun and the area wasn�t crowded at all. Eric, who is a good skier, and I went down all the slopes. Double blacks, blacks, blues and greens. It was so much fun. I could also see the beautiful Rocky Mountains which were covered with snow and the sun was shining on them. An unbelievable panorama picture. After the skiing Sue picked us up and she had the good news that now the Berthourd pass was open. So we decided to switch the areas to our original planned one, Winter Park. We returned our skis and a few hours after we had left Silverthorne we arrived in Winter Park. We went to our cottage and ate. We also rented new ski equipment and bought some other stuff we needed. I got a really nice ski (160cm long). I looked forward to the next day. At 8.15a.m. we were at the slopes. I thought it was early but no. The lift lines were already long. But it wasn�t too bad. The whole day was a success. Really nice. Sun, news snow, good equipment and the area was big enough that it was not too crowded. The Winter Park area was better then the Copper one. You could ski everything. Normal slopes, steep slopes, forest or moguls. We did a little bit of everything. The deep snow slopes were so deep that it was impossible to ski on them. It was unbelievable. So much snow. At 4 p.m. Sue picked us up and we drove back to Ames. All in all we had a nice trip to Colorado with some troubles but finally we skied. One thing is sure: I have to go back to Colorado!!!
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