One Tough Lady

One tough lady
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Date: Tuesday, 16 July 2002, at 8:09 a.m.
When traveling, Mary and I always tow my Honda Helix along on a trailer. It is a 250 cc and it fun to ride while we sightsee. It will run at 70 mph with two of us on it and get 70 mpg. Not in the mountains but I sure don’t intend on sightseeing at 70 mph anyway.
A couple years ago we were staying in a little village of Grand Lake, at the southwest enturance to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). We stayed there for two or three days while exploring the park on the scooter.
One day we decided to go from Grand Lake to Estes Park, a distance of 46 miles each way. This road goes through the park and reaches 12,000 ft, far above tree line. It is a bit of a job for the scooter but it was up to the task.
This picture is of Mary and the scooter, either in RMNP or Glacier, I can’t tell which.
We always carry rain gear on the scooter and on this day it was lucky. We had gotten far above tree line and looking to the west, we could see a storm coming. It was like a slow moving wall of blackness. I asked her if she wanted to turn back but she said we should continue.
We finally got to the Alpine Village Visitors Center, which is a rest area at about the highest point on the road and the storm was still hanging behind us. It didn’t seem to be getting any closer but was hanging with us, a couple miles off I would guess.
We dug out the rain gear and put it on. I had full coverage and Mary had the jacket. Since she was setting behind me we figured I would block most of any rain we encountered.
I asked her if she was up to going the rest of the way to Estes Park, which was still 24 miles ahead of us and much with no cover at all. She said to go for it.
Off we went. It was beautiful from up there and of course, we could see for miles. This big black wall seemed to be getting closer. I kept my eyes on it and knew we were not going to get below tree line before it hit us. Well what the hell, a little water never hurt and we were prepared.
The wind seemed to be picking up a bit and pushing us along. I don’t drive that thing much more than 25 mph up there as I want to see the country and it is a long way to the bottom of some of those valleys!
We had been on the downhill run since the visitors center. At one point I glanced back and said, “Oooooh Sh*t! Hold on!” With that she did a death hold around my waste. The storm had caught up and it was about a hundred feet behind me and closing. It hit us with a fury.
It was hail! I tried to ride it out and hoped to find some shelter but there was none to be had. I rode about a mile and with no idea how long it would last, told Mary I was gonna go back to the Visitors center to get out of this weather. She just nodded.
The roadway was becoming covered with the sleet and I had to take it easy so I would not dump us. The problem is I did not have a face shield on my helmet, Mary did but I did not, and my head was above the windshield. We were riding directly into the storm now and my face was taking a beating, even at the slow speed I was forced to maintain. Hell the gap between my windshield and faring was half full of the damn sleet or hair or what ever it was!
Many just held on with her face against my back and didn’t say anything. I yelled back and asked if she was ok and she just nodded.
Finally I saw a pull off area and headed for it. I yelled I could not take the wind and ice any more and had to pull off. We stopped and with no shelter, I stood with my back against the storm and Mary stood in the lee of my body and snuggled as close as she could get. We stood this way for a couple minutes, rather comfortable actually, when a car came pulling up.
A lady yelled, “Get in!” and we dove for her open door. That car sure felt good to us about then. The storm was raging outside but we, while not warm, were at least safe.
The lady was from Minnesota and on vacation. She had seen us standing out there and figured we could use a bit of shelter. She was right.
The storm was past us in another 10 minutes and with a sincere thank you, we got out.
The story was east of us now, which is the direction of Estes Park. I asked Mary what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to see Estes Park. Good for her! We took off the rain gear and stowed it in the trunk and off we went. Off we went slowly as the road was covered with hailstones. As we got lower they disappeared though as it was getting warmer.
We finally got below the tree line and were nearing Estes. The valley is beautiful on our left as we descend the mountain. Finally we came into town and the weather was beautiful. We injoyed a couple hours in town and decided to head back over the parkway, to the other side.
We had only gotten about 4 or 5 miles into the park, on our way back, when the weather turned to crap again. We got into our rain gear and headed out. This time it was only rain though. I was fine as my raingear was doing its job. I kept asking Mary how she was doing and she kept saying fine.
It rained all the way back. There was no more hail but it was a long trip. We could not go over 15 or 20 mph. We stopped at the Visitors center and had lunch and that helped but we still had a long way to go. Mary did not gripe one time.
We finally got to our Motel room and went in. She just stood there and could not seem to move. I was fine but I had bottoms on. She did not and she was soaked to the skin from the waste down. She said the was freezing. I ran a tub of water for her and helped her peel out of the duds. I asked her why the hell she had not told me she was froze. She asked me what I would have been able to do about it. Good point.
We finally got her in a tub of hot water and after that warmed her up more Eskimo style.
She is one tough lady.. I was warm as toast all the way….