And then things got a mite Western…

Hank Snow. Pure Country. “Under Western Skies”. Texas Swing.

Well now that the required song reference has been taken care of, the subject refers to a couple of things. One – it’s a colloquialism we use out here, understated, of course, to basically say that things are getting pretty wild. And B: that would pretty much describe my jaunt down Floyd Hill yesterday.

Floyd Hill runs down (westbound) from Genesee to Idaho Springs. About 13 or 14 miles. Drop in elevation is somewhere around 2,000 feet. And you also need to know that I-70 is THE major route across Colorado east to west or west to east. I-25 is the north-south route, but that’s another story. Anyways, I-70 carries a lot of semi-trailer traffic. And because it’s Colorado, a lot of 4WD pickups and SUV’s as well. Lots of large vehicles.

And there are some places where it gets a skosh bit tight, with lanes ending, acceleration ramps merging, etc. Floyd Hill is one of those places. Your basic little Toyota or Honda looks pretty dang small in the I-70 crowd.

So, going down Floyd Hill yesterday, trying to keep Steve (our Yukon XL) from running over 80 mph, dodging the 18-wheeler traffic, and then I find myself behind a large truck… and suddenly a lot of smoke is coming from his rear wheels. Then I can see that the rear wheels are “chattering” – locked up and hopping down the pavement instead of rolling. I had about ½ a second to hit the left lane and the gas pedal. Some sort of small vehicle behind me in that lane had to hit their jammers pretty hard, but there was no way I was going to drive into the rear end of a semi.

Eventually I got back in the right lane, and the little hontoyhyundaewatsun-something passed me. The driver even “communicated” with me (think Top Gun here). Steve left that car way behind while cruising up to the Tunnel and over Vail Pass locked in at 70 mph without breathing hard.

But yeah, for a moment there, things got a mite Western…