our trip to the USA part 8

as we left Boulder Utah we backtracked on our night's drive in on highway 12 and reached Bryce Canyon. we had to stop even if just for a short look because back at the house at dinner they all said we must see it on our way back down.
the snow from the night had made the road a bit slippery but we made it to the visitors center. we took the road to Sunrise point but it was close so we went to Realization point instead...
HOLY MOLY!!! what is this place?! it is SOOOO beautiful!!

this is CRAZY!!!

 the wind was strong and it was freezing out there but the view... oh the view... we spent an hour or so wondering around till we had to move on...
we got back in the silver rocket and continued on our way...
there was about a 6 hour drive ahead of us and we started to roll...
the view from the road in Utah is something unbelievable. that state is pure view... unreal! 
this was one day of pure driving and only stopping at different view points along the road to take photos and just admire this vastness of the land with its breath talking views... 

we stopped on the road at the pink coral sand dunes to stretch our legs and continued on to Monument Valley.

we reached the valley as the sun was setting and the view was stunning! this place is so magical! what happened here?! how were these amazing rock formations became? 
all along this road trip we both had the feeling of geological time.. hundreds of millions of years this land is here... so much has happened here... so much time...

  
the day was long and the sun was setting. we had to stop for the night and we looked for a place to stop. 
this is funny.. one road, lots of cars, nowhere to stop and sleep! hahaha! what is happening?
finely we reached Bluff and drove passed a lodge that had a Vacant sign! u-turned the car and drove back. Ayelet went inside and got the only room that was available just because someone had just left the room because he was feeling ill and needed to go home... such luck! as the lady ran outside to post the NO VACANCY sign, 5 cars pulled up looking for a place to sleep... so so lucky...
the women at the front desk told us that if we wish to have a bite to eat, there is only one restaurant and it closes at 20:00 so we need to go there quickly since it will most likely be full today because of all the holiday traffic. and so we did.
there was a long waiting line at the restaurant as she had predicted and the girl at the counter told us it will be 25 minute wait, although the gay next to us said they have been waiting for 35 minutes and there are still 3 more before him...
it took and hour and a half but we got seated finally and had our dinner. 
we got back to the lodge to go to sleep and ready for tomorrow's drive to Boulder Colorado (a 9.5 hour drive).
took a shower and slept.
in the morning we had breakfast with Steve the dentist who told us amazing stories about his trip with the family and we told him stories about Israel...

the room at the lodge

having coffee

Steve the dentist

the Dodge at the Lodge

   we put the address of our friend at Boulder CO in the GPS and took off... a very long and fun drive!

but what was to come was not expected by anyone....

 actually, it was my fault for not noticing a passing sign on the highway that only days later as i looked at a video Ayelet was taking while me driving i noticed the sign on the road. it said: "traction law in effect at I-70 on Vail" 
but it would not have mattered since i did not know what traction law meant... we should have taken a different route to Boulder but i did not know what was going on up in the mountain so i could not have planed this better...

as we got up the mountain the weather became darker, rain started to fall and not soon after, snow! as we live in Israel, snow we never see... certainly not heavy snow!
we got excited and rejoiced in our new amazing adventure but our party was about to take a dive! 

having fun in the snow

unaware of what is to come.... hahahaha

the road became snowed, the silver rocket is a fun car on regular roads, but this was not it! this car had 370 horse power going only to the back wheels and those had sport tiers on them... 
the car started to slip... and the GPS started to say that the road ahead is closed due to sever snow storm and we had to get off the highway... 
for those of you not familiar with snow driving in a car that is not equipped to drive in snow, this is dangerous! you must not stop since you will not be able to start moving again, you must not turn sharply since you will find your self at the ditch in the side of the road, and since we got off the highway we now had stop lights! oh no... 
i managed to keep the car going straight but it took all my efforts to do so without skidding to all sides... and then the GPS said to go back on the highway. this was a mistake but there was nothing we could do at that point. the mountain was being hit with a massive snow storm...
i took the on ramp back on the highway, doing so very very carefully but this was hopeless...
as i did so the car just went sideways and got stuck in deep snow on the side of the on ramp, in a way that other cars can pass us but we are going nowhere :)
i told Ayelet: "that is it. we move no longer. time for a tow truck"
Ayelet did not accept my giving up (although this was not giving up, this was facing the situation) and so she had me try some maneuvers to get out and go (even though the road ahead of us was closed but we did not know that yet).
no luck. the car is stuck in deep snow :) she called 911 and had them send a tow truck our way so all we had to do is sit in the heat of the car and wait. but that is not what happened!
 
cars passed us and all of a sudden a car pulled in front of us and a girl and a guy got out and wanted to push our car back on the road. i told them that it will not work but they insisted.
we tried for 20 minutes by them digging under the wheels and placing rocks under them... no help. the car is stuck.
but, now more cars stopped to help them to push us back and i had them all in the back pushing as i tried to drive... no luck. the car is stuck.
i told them that i am so grateful for their amazing good will but it is all fine, there is a truck on the way and we will be getting out with the tow's help. they all cleared and moved on accept for the girl and guy who were stubborn... but to no avail.
all of a sudden a bus came and had to slow down so the two of them can get back in their car who was in front of ours but they did not do so in time and the bus had to stop just in front of our car. that was a mistake.
once the bus stopped, it can not go again and only slipped into ditch in front of us... oh boy.. this is bad... we now blocked the whole on ramp and now even the tow truck can not pull us forward because of the bus...
so, the sheriff arrived, we talked for a moment or two and i told him what has happened and that the tow truck is coming so we went down to stop traffic from going on the on ramp...
we sat there for a while in the car waiting for the truck and finely it came...

me and the sheriff

me having a blast through it all

mini Max stuck....

hooking up the car to the tow truck

the rescue operation was complicated because of the bus ahead of us blocking the road but the driver was smart... he went down the ramp, turned around and backed up in reverse... he hooked up the car and pulled it out of the ditch and on to his truck... we were out! ha! but now... where to go? how do we get off the mountain? people are waiting just an hour away for dinner... but it was not to be... all roads were closed and heavy snow fall was covering the mountain...
the kind driver took us to Avon, a small fancy ski resort town for the night and set the car down next to a hotel but told us to go in because many many people got stuck in the storm and we might not have a place to sleep... so Ayelet went in as i tried to park the car in the snow... i managed to drive straight into the parking lot and parked the car... after hours of turmoil, this day's drive was now over.

car on truck and we are on our way to Avon

i met Ayelet inside waiting in line and someone said that there is no more rooms available... we decided to split as she waited in that line, i went across the street to the fancy 5 star Sheraton hotel to look for a room. they had rooms! yeah! but its 260$ a night and we might need to spend a day or two till this snow clears! wow.... OK, that is cool, no drama :)
booked the room and went back to get Ayelet who just got to the desk to have the man at the counter say to the entire line behind her: "that is it. no more rooms guys!"
we walked slowly in the snow to the hotel on the other side of the street and got in our room :) wow! this is super fancy!!!!
went back down to look for a place to have dinner after this whole ordeal and found BOB'S PLACE and had our selves a nice dinner... we went back to the room and went to sleep hoping that in the morning, or at least at noon we can get back on the road..

ca

at BOB'S

the fancy room

me in bed after a LONG CRAZY day...

 in the morning things looked better but still the roads were not open all the way down the mountain... and so we waited. at around noon we got our gear and headed to the car outside.

breaking the ice from the wheels

the road clearing up and us on our way to Boulder!

we drove off the mountain slowly in a huge traffic jam that was created by the thousands of cars that got stranded in the storm up with us... it took us about 5 hours non stop to reach Boulder, what should have taken an hour and a half.... 
but we did not care! we were driving again!
as we reached Boulder by 17:00 PM and where SOOOO happy and hungry since we did not even stop to eat on the road from the fear that we might not be able to get back on I-70 because the road was still frozen at times and we did not want to get stuck again...

finally, we got to Ami & Michal's house and many hugs were given and received! what a journey!!!!!
2500 miles (4000 km) in 6 days with the most amazing incredible events and people and sites and experiences...
holy moly man, that was one road trip!!!!! 
we spent another week in Boulder with our dear friends and traveled around to Estes park and more... 
so much has happened there in Boulder in that week's time, but if i continue to write it all here it will be another 4 posts at least and i am not sure if anyone out there (except for my mom) will ever read it...
how we met Dororn, how we met Paul and how we buried the dead cat we found, and many crazy stories that just kept on coming on this USA trip...
 

with Ami in Boulder on the way to the airport

Ayelet on the plane with her friend the unicorn

at the end of it all we parted with our friends and said goodbye to America... for me this was a very helpful adventure because it showed me how America has changed in the 20 years i have not been there and for Ayelet this has been even more beneficial since she knew nothing of this side of America, she has only been to NY or only at the east coast part... this side of the USA was totally new to her and it blew her mind!

outside the Israeli airport waiting for Tomer to pick us up and take us home...

thank you all for letting me share this all with you :) 

see you in future posts