Rest Stop Prior To Piedra Falls
I am now in the position of having to decide whether to retire now or at my normal retirement time in the future, my work place has undergone a tremendous upheaval in terms of personnel let go, budgets cut, inventory reduction, etc.
We had hoped to visit Dianna in Pagosa Springs, Colorado but she also has some of the same problems and couldn't get away.
So Desiree' and I left Fort Worth in our trusty little black Oldsmobile for a week of R & R. We spent almost 2 full days in New Mexico traveling back roads and enjoying mountains, streams and other scenery. We spent a night in Angel Fire and a day in Red River. The days were warm, not hot, and the evenings were a dream - in the low 50's.
We finally arrived in Pagosa Springs after having driven over the Wolf Creek Pass and marveling at its beautiful scenery. We then spent a day looking at property in the area with the possibility of retiring there in the future.
Now we finally get to the reason for this article in the first place. The next day was sight seeing day. We had heard how beautiful Piedra Falls (waterfalls) were so decided to go see them. When Desiree' and I vacation, Diane gets to go along and dress for a day or two. This was the day. Diane was dressed in a pretty little Tee Shirt with cap sleeves and three embroidered flowers on the front.
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Rest Stop Prior To Piedra Falls |
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The paved road ran out quickly and we were on rough gravel. A few miles down the road and even the gravel ran out and here we were on a plain dirt road, going up and down steep inclines and around sharp curves. For some reason, this dry dirt was slippery and the car even fish-tailed a couple of times! Desiree' was driving, to allow Diane to bask in luxury. I guess that this would be an appropriate time to say that we were told not to go to the falls if the road were wet. Well, it hadn't rained in months so we thought we were safe. We arrived safely at the falls and after about a 20 minute hike we were at the base. We passed several people who were coming down from the falls. The path was very narrow and there was no avoiding them, so Diane just said "Hi" and kept on going. In our humble opinion, this was a waterfall but was singularly unimpressive. After taking a few pictures we started back to the car.
Imagine our surprise to first hear THUNDER and then to feel RAINDROPS. We dashed to the car and were immediately under way! We made it around one curve and then on a straightaway, with the road sloping toward the precipitous edge of the mountain, THE BACK END OF THE CAR STARTED TO SLIDE DOWN HILL! We had been going all of 2-3 miles per hour. We felt so helpless! Was this going to be our finish? The car finally stopped sliding. We didn't get out to look; first, because we were so scared we probably couldn't have stood up, and secondly, we weren't sure that the car wouldn't start sliding again if we moved. I think the back wheels were no more than six inches from the edge of a long, steep mountainside.
After our heartbeats slowed down to the mere thousands of beats per second, and we could breathe again, we debated our course of action. We were perpendicular to the roadway and completely blocking it. There was one other vehicle left at the falls, a pickup. If it were to come speeding around the corner, it could hit us and knock us all over the ledge. We decided we had to move.
I put the car into the lowest gear it had and eased on the gas. At first nothing happened. At least we didn't go sliding backwards or spin the wheels. S l o w l y our little front wheel drive vehicle began to inch forward. I turned the wheels to try to get realigned with the road. The front wheels did turn but the rear wheels just slid sideways! Finally the rear wheels caught and we were able to get straightened out with the road.
We stopped and rested again. As we were trying to regain our composure, a man on a little four wheel all-terrain vehicle appeared beside us. We told him how bad the road was behind us and he assured us that it was WORSE in front of us. We had about 3 miles of this road surface with steep grades and hairpin turns. He suggested we sit right there for at least 30 minutes AFTER THE RAIN STOPPED. He opined that the road would dry out quickly and we could be safely on our way. He then disappeared down the road from which we had just come.
We sat there a long time but the rain didn't seem to want to stop. Finally I decided to try to inch ahead. Putting the car in gear, I crept along a 1 mile per hour or less and the car still was all over the road. We stopped again and waited.
Now I have read many articles and heard many presentations about always having a survival pack with you when you go out dressed. In fact, Alisa comments on that very subject elsewhere in this newsletter. Having male clothes to enable me to switch back into the male persona wouldn't have done much for my situation, but had we gone over the edge, it would have made it easier on my survivors. As it was, I already had a major run in my hose and my poor sandles were absolutely caked with mud. How could I have appeared in public looking like that? My only answer is that in times like that, what you're wearing, how you look, or what other people think just doesn't mean a $%#*.
All of a sudden, here comes the white pickup that had been back at the falls. To us, he seemed to be driving at breakneck speed (but it probably wasn't over 15 or 20 mph.) He too was all over the road, however, he may have had four wheel drive to help him.
After another long period of waiting, we proceeded on our journey to escape the mountain. At top speeds of 3 mph we bolted down the mountain side to freedom! Along the way we saw where the truck that had preceded us had gone off the road in several places - fortunately all on the uphill side of the road.
So here we are back in Fort Worth, Texas. What have we learned.
