naucrx

iTrader: (19)

I figured the thread title here would get the attention of a few more people.

Anyway... Here are some pics of my return trip from Denver last weekend. I drove up there to visit a friend and just hang out. The weather looked good on the way up and it appeared that they may only get some light snow in the Denver area on the day of my departure (Monday, March 14). Little did I know what would await me on I-25 south to Albuquerque. The tires on my car are Bridgestone Potenza RE750, 255/40/17. (Hey, they work just fine for Arizona! lol!)

I was crashing with my friend Eric (oak2207) in Golden, and we went for a fun drive on Saturday, March 12th up in the hills west of Denver. (See my "Drivin' up in the Rockies" thread.) We went to a movie that night in Boulder and came out and it was snowing. We didn't get a chance to put the snow tires back on Eric's EVO, so we had to make the drive back to his place in Golden on Potenza S03s. The roads weren't too bad, he just had a little trouble seeing since it was dark out.

We woke up on Sunday the 13th and my car looked like this:



My first thought was, great... I'm gonna have to drive home in the snow. But Sunday the weather was pretty clear, with only light fluries and sparse ice patches on the roadways. I figured I would be fine for my drive home on Monday.

Here's me getting gas on Monday, at around 7:00a.m.:



View out the windshield:



Here's C470 heading towards I-25. The roads weren't too bad here. I think I was going about 40-45mph at this point:



Heading south on I-25 towards Springs:



Now, about 5 miles north of Pueblo, traffic comes to a stand still. The roads were not too bad at this point (thank God). I was able to stop safely without hitting the car in front of me. It was about 1/2 mile of bottle neck as the right lane was merging with the left lane due to a pile up. Eric called me to tell me about the pile up but I had already made it through. I counted roughly 25 wrecked vehicles on the side of the road:











Now, I'm crusing again south of Pueblo on I-25. 65mph - Yahoo! Roads are pretty clear, just a little wet, and it's not too cold outside, maybe 28 degrees:





I ran into a little rough patch near Walsenburg. There was some slush on the road but not too bad, and traffic was still flowing at 30-35mph.



After I made it through Walsenburg and headed toward Trinidad, I thought I would get slammed heading up over the hills into Raton, New Mexico. Much to my surprise the pass is clear!







I stopped for gas in Raton, New Mexico and mixed in 2 gallons of 100 octane with the 90 octane at the pump. (I took 2 gallons of 110 up with me so I could stop here on the way up.) I was floored that somewhere in the US they didn’t even have what we know in California and Arizona as 91 **** gas. lol Here’s me back on the road after gassing up. It’s still snowing pretty good, but the roads are clear so far:



If you can read the exit sign, it says Exit 361. I’m roughly 20 miles north of Las Vegas, New Mexico. This will be the best I will see the roads until I get to Albuquerque.



As I get further south on I-25, the weather gets worse and the roads aren’t so clear anymore. I called my wife to have her check the weather for Santa Fe, and the forecast says “Heavy Snow.” Great. My speed at this point as dropped to 45-50mph.



I made it through Las Vegas without too much trouble. Here I am passing a sign for Exit 323, roughly 18 miles south of Las Vegas.



I’m almost to Santa Fe at this point; however, the snow is beginning to stick to the roads. The outside temperature is more than likely below 25 degrees.



Now, it’s really coming down. I can’t see more than 750 feet ahead of me. I found a clear spot on the highway to pull over to clear off my headlights and around the wipers so that I could continue driving. I thought I was going to get hit on the side of the road by idiot drivers, but luckily I didn’t.







Here I am driving by Exit 297 behind a convertible 350Z. I think he’s having a worse time driving in the snow than I am. I pass him going roughly 25 miles per hour.



Visibility wise, this is the worst part of my drive. I’m somewhere near Santa Fe, and the snow is really coming down. All the slower cars are behind me, and the faster ones are ahead of me and I’m able to drive at my own pace. I only got one pic at this point, as I am having trouble seeing the road. I figured it was best to keep 2 hands on the wheel and concentrate.



FINALLY, after about 30 minutes of driving at 20mph, I made it through Santa Fe and into stopped traffic. A 350Z almost hit me while getting on the freeway. I think he saw my car and wanted to show off or something. I saw him turn the wheel too sharply merging onto the freeway to attempt to pass another car. He lost control and spun out into my lane, nearly hitting me, and nearly running me off the road as I tried to avoid him. I looked over and saw him spin around a few times and slam into the Interstate 25 sign pole on the right shoulder. HA HA! I wanted to stop and make fun of him for his idiotic move but I probably would’ve crashed myself in doing so, so I continued on. Now through Santa Fe, the roads are a little more clear, but the traffic has backed up to rush hour like traffic.



Here I am coming into Albuquerque after the ****iest driving conditions I have ever seen. Half of the cars start exiting the freeway (probably for bathroom breaks) but I continue on and stop for food and gas further into town where there will be less people.



My drive got continually better as I crossed through Albuquerque with only light snow and mostly clear roads. I decided against driving across I-40 west towards Flagstaff and continue south on I-25 to connect up with I-10. This was probably the smartest thing I did all day. lol I saw clear roads all the way to Deming, New Mexico, where I stopped for 6 hours of sleep before continuing home. Driving in crappy snow weather is so exhausting!

Ahh, back in good ole’ Arizona! I decided to take the scenic route home and went up Highway 70 from Lordsburg to connect up with US60. I got home about 11:30am on Tuesday morning.



Total distance traveled (one way) 996 miles. Total driving time on my return trip from Golden, Colorado to my house in Mesa, Arizona was roughly 22 hours!

If you took the time to read this, THANKS! And let me just add that driving in the snow with summer tires REALLY SUCKS!!! LOL

oak2207

Told ya you coulda borrowed my winter tires... Gotta love Colorado in March!! Not 2 days before this it was 63 and sunny as all hell, as you can see in the thread he linked to at the top.

EVOFQ300

holy shiznit