The Thanksgiving Blizzard of 2002

The Thanksgiving Blizzard of 2002

when I left Steamboat Springs that morning, it was a clear day. I was driving a twenty- four passenger people mover was 257. Mike, the Fleet Manager for the taxi, had just started putting new winter tires on the vehicles but had not got to this one yet.

The trip over was uneventful and we arrived on time at the Airport. However, it had started raining as I was coming down Floyd Hill into Denver. I dropped my passengers and went to the Flying J to have lunch and while I was there, it started snowing lightly. After lunch, I went to D.I.A and picked up my passengers. There was one woman a little older than me and eighteen teen-agers that were going to the .

As we started out, the rain and snow started to change into a real wet, heavy snow. The road was not too bad; it was just a little slushy going up Floyd Hill, through and into the Eisenhower Tunnel. When we got about half way through the tunnel, you could see that it was going to get rough when we came out the other side, because the road was starting to freeze in the tunnel. As soon as we came out the other side, it was a white out. It was snowing hard and the wind was blowing hard by this time I had caught up with another Alpine Taxi driver so at least there were two of us traveling to Steamboat together in case one of us got into trouble. We did a fifteen-minute break in Silverthorne to let everyone use the restroom and get something to eat.

When we left there, it was getting worse and the roads from Silverthorne are winding all the way into Steamboat Springs, so I was nervous. When we pulled out, the other driver took the lead right off because he thought that he knew the road better than me. He kept having trouble with his van fish tailing on the slick snow. There was a few times the when the wind stopped blowing, you could see he was on the other side of the road. I finally got him to get behind me so that he could follow me, as I knew the road better than him. Other than having to drive at speeds of five to ten miles per hour, the drive was not to bad until we got to a short straight of way. A person in a pickup passed us and he almost hit another car head. From there we did not really have to worry about anyone because there was no one else on the road until we summated on the east side of Rabbit Ears Pass. At that point, there were about six cars sitting along the road and they started to follow us. Not long after that there was about fifteen cars behind me. On the curve on the summit, I looked into my mirror while the wind slowed for a second and the other driver was on the wrong side of the road again. At this point, I looked at the inside mirror to check on the teenagers to see how they were doing and they were all in the mirror looking through the front window. After a while, I looked to my left, and there were arrow signs that they put up telling people to stay left. The next thing I knew I was in the driveway to the Colorado Department of Transportation, so everyone had to back up and get onto the highway again. The other Alpine Taxi driver wound up in front of me as we went on into the Boat.

It took us three hours to get to Silverthorne from D.I.A and another six to get from Silverthorne to Steamboat Springs; it is usually three and a half to three hours and forty-five minute drive total. When we got to Steamboat, I had the other driver take my older passenger home while I delivered the teen-agers to the school that they were going to. It took another two hours to finish my day out. At least it was a good day as no one got hurt.