Why I don't wear skirts

If you don't live in the north east, like me, all you have to do is turn on the news to see the havoc the blizzard is reaking. It takes me back to the time hubby and I lived in high country of Colorado.

When we first married we decided to move to Colorado. I'd never been so we decided to take a vacation there for me to see it. I was hooked immediatly! Although I spent all my teen years in Paris, France I love the great outdoors. Give me a tent, some food, a good book or two and a beautiful lake and I could stay for a week. I also love to ski, so without hesitation we began the plans to move to the high country of Colorado.

The one thing I did not anticipate were the long winters, nine months to be exact. We bought a house that sat at 11,600 feet and our commute to work was over a mountain pass with a lot of switch backs. The first winter proved to be interesting but I was up for the challenge. I had never driven in the snow before and all the locals convinced me that I should buy a car with 4-wheel drive and a manual transmission. I'd also never driven a stick before. Thankfully I mastered the stick before the snow started flying.

I have many, many stories of my adventures with the house at 11,600 and our commute over the mountain pass. I will only tell this one for now, hence the title to this blog.

It was April, Easter weekend to be exact. I had a bridal shower to go to and I had to travel over the mountain pass. It was a beautiful morning, unseasonably warm (about 50 degrees) for a high country April morning. I decided to dress up for this bridal shower. I had a skirt that I hadn't worn yet so I was quite excited to get all dolled up and feel like a girl. I dressed, drove over the pass and had a fabulous time at the bridal shower. When it was time to leave, I walked outside to find 3 feet of heavy, wet spring snow lying on the ground. In the 3 hours of the bridal shower it had snowed 3 feet! I could barely walk to my car because of my cute, no traction shoes that I was wearing. I found my snow boots in my car and promptly changed my shoes, then proceeded to brush off my whole car.

I had to go to the grocery store as well. It was Easter weekend and we were having friends and neighbors over the next day. I drove to the grocery store and while I was shopping I overheard an employee apologizing that he was late for work. He said that the pass was a mess, there were cars spinning out and in ditches everywhere. I walked up to him and told him I had to drive home over the pass, did he think I was going to make it. He said yes as long as I had 4-wheel drive and drove slowly.

I finished my grocery shopping, walked out to my car and had to brush off about another foot of wet, heavy spring snow and began my journey home. I was in a long line of cars that were behind a snow plow, slowly ascending the pass. As we were approaching the summit the line of cars stopped for a brief moment when the traffic started moving again the car in front of me started spinning tires. It was a 4-wheel drive vehicle that was not engaged in 4-wheel drive! Idiots! and yes their tags were from out of state. They started sliding backwards, there was a cliff right next to me so I had to think quickly. I maneuvered around them barely missing on coming traffic. Thankfully, they found the momentum to move forward. I reached the summit and began to descend, again very slowly and behind a long line of cars. As I was descending it must have snowed at least another foot and all the new snow that accumulated on the roof of my car slid onto my windshield. I couldn't see! I couldn't tell where I could even pull over to get the snow off of my car! So, I rolled down my window and stuck my head out to see the car in front of me. I finally made it to the bottom of the pass and pulled over. I got out to clean off my windshield in approximately 4-5 feet of snow. Do you have any idea how cold snow is when you are wearing a skirt?! I was cursing the whole time I was cleaning off the windshield. Thankfully I made it home, unloaded the groceries and poured my self a glass of wine vowing that I would never wear a skirt again.