Even though we were in the middle of the Mountain Time Zone, we decided to celebrate the Eastern Time Zone new year's and then go straight to bed.
After all, we all had to get up early the next morning. From our balcony, we could watch Copper Mountain's New Year's Eve firework show that started at 10 p.m.
But then we decided to play another round of games. Before we knew it, it was midnight in the Central Time Zone. So we welcomed in the new year for the part of the country where all of us usually reside.
We were having too much fun, and an hour later we finally all agreed that we really had to go to bed RIGHT AFTER we celebrated the Mountain Time Zone's new year. We took this family picture, all of us wearing our "Hello 2019" hats.
We were getting a little silly as the night got later. This karate version of the family picture shows that it is definitely time for bed!
Staying up until midnight, we only got six hours of sleep before our alarms went off the next morning. We were on the road early, when the thermometer on the car read -1 degrees. We've never seen a negative number on the car's temperature gauge before, and we can't say that we ever want to see it again. But the mountains around us were beautiful with their covering of snow.
Between Copper Mountain's 10,000-feet elevation and the mile-high city of Denver (5,280 feet) the first part of our trip today was downhill. We would have had more change in elevation if we had to go over that mountain in front of us.
But instead, we drove right through that mountain. This is the opening to the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel along I-70. At a little more than 11,000 feet in elevation, it's the highest vehicular tunnel in the world. We cruised right under the Continental Divide in this tunnel that continued for 1.7 miles through that mountain.
The biggest obstacle on our drive homeward was visibility. Our windshield washer fluid was completely frozen up. That means that there was no way to wipe off the snowy road grime that passing cars were throwing on our windshield. The grime would freeze, making it almost impossible to see.
We stopped at a gas station, already filled with other travelers with the same problem. They have a large display of windshield wiper fluid outside, so this must be a common occurrence. We were glad when we got off of the wet roads that continued through Denver. We were even gladder that the icy roads through Kansas have now melted. It was a 7.5-hour trip back to the Oklahoma panhandle on New Year's Day. But we are glad to announce that our group of eleven people had no ski injuries, sickness, and no travel problems. That's a great beginning to the new year! It will take us a couple days to do laundry and repack everything back into the motor home so we can be back on the road again. But for now, we wish you a happy new year, and pray that 2019 will bring you all happy trails.
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