A Ski Vacation saved by a Penny

I mentioned in my last post “The Penny Private Messenger” how I have been finding Pennies at the most unexpected and unbelievable places. I also mentioned I’d write about another most recent incident on Dec 28, 2016. It serves as a continuing reminder for us to Trust the process of life, to Trust in God.

Amazing co-incidences happened around Thanksgiving 2016 which gave us hope that we could take a long awaited Ski Vacation to Colorado for the first time. In a hurry, without looking at too many details we arranged a two-week vacation. Our plan was to stay in Denver, Colorado so we could tour the city and drive eight of those days to A-Basin Ski Slopes for skiing. On a good day without traffic and weather delays the drive was supposed to be about 1 hr 15 minutes which wasn’t a big deal.

It was the best ever vacation of my life. Many amazing things happened and one of them is how a penny found in time saved our ski trip. The penny that appeared out of no where. 

Day 1 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes (13000 feet elevation) from Denver:

It was pleasant mild day when we started for A-Basin. The route was meant to be fast highway driving then about 10 miles of slow mountain pass driving.  To begin with there was a lot of traffic on the highway causing us extra one-hour delay. That was fine but the experience of the mountain pass road was a surprise to me. Road had mostly icy snow on it all the way. Our car wasn’t equipped for drive in snowy conditions; it wasn’t 4-wheel drive, it didn’t have snow tires or snow chains. The road was slippery at times. We had to drive extra carefully and slowly.  The road was winding, creating blind turns at times.  The path was quite steep and single lane too.  Most of the way there were no barricades on that road. Looking out of the car back seat window seeing mountain slopes 10000+ feet down off the road was not where I wanted to focus.

Finally, two and half hours later we reached the ski slopes and were happy to be able to park the car in the closest parking space. It was a great fun day of skiing for the guys while I sat in the lodge. Slopes closed at 4pm. By the time we packed up and headed back it was already getting dark.  More careful driving and we were back in Denver in two and half hours.

Day 2 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver:

Same as Day 1 except this time when we reached mountain pass road I was thinking to myself, ‘This is too darn risky of a drive up the mountain pass. It is not even snowing yet over the highways but when it starts snowing how will the drive be?’

I noticed my muscles were tense and I was even holding my breath at different twists and turns of the road. We reached up there thankfully but could only find a parking spot much further away from the lodge.  It was a long walk in the snow.

I just didn’t expect to be walking long enough in the snow for my shoes and feet to get wet. I just hadn’t had the time to buy waterproof snow shoes.  I had checked out a couple of stores near the hotel with no success.  So I postponed the purchase for following day because it meant we’d have to hunt for some stores farther away.

On the way back right at the junction of highway and steep mountain pass we saw signs of another Ski Slopes area: ‘Loveland Pass’. We decided to give it at least one try some day even though based on online reviews it didn’t fit our criteria for the features we were looking for Skiing.

Dec 28, 2016-Day 3 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver: – Divine message.

Now, this day was quite different. There was very heavy white powdery snow all around. The whole highway drive was extra slow.  If it took three hours just on the highway how long would it take to go up the mountain pass road? The snow was so heavy that front windshield was fogging up frequently. The defroster in car was running at full strength. By that time actually I was in no mood to even attempt going up to A-Basin. It looked too dangerous. Instead since we were almost by Loveland Pass Ski Slopes we decided to just go there.

Guess what? It seemed like everyone else had the same idea too. The huge snowy white parking lot was packed with cars.  Just like many other cars we too inching slowly went through the parking lot looking for a parking spot. When we were passing through the narrow passageway of last row suddenly all cars stopped. There were two cars in front of us and several behind us.

We Waited-Five minutes, Ten minutes, Fifteen minutes. No movement. All of us were quiet but I’m sure everyone was wondering what the delay was. Also I was thinking,

1. There are only 4 hours left for ski slopes to shut down. After you put on all ski gear and get ready to ski it’ll be another hour gone.
2. If we keep idling in the car, with defroster and heat running we’ll run out of gas to even go back.
3. The sooner we get some ski done the sooner we can leave else it’ll be too dark and snowy highway. It might take four to five hours to get back to Denver.
4. No wait, I’m even giving up the idea of skiing here. Once we are able to get out of this parking lot we are heading right back to Denver.
5. Not only that I’ve almost decided that this is the end of the entire ski trip. The road conditions are too risky. There is no way we can even think of going up the hazardous steep mountain pass.
6. But, most importantly I really have the urgency to go to the restroom to take a pee.

I confess I was getting anxious and a bit angry. No one said a word though. I opened the car door to take a quick peek at what was happening ahead of us.

To my amazement I saw the first car was just standing there with at-least two rows of cars worth of parking space available right in front.  The first car just had to make a left turn, go to the end of the row and park the car!

I sat back down in the car puzzled. It felt like -10⁰ F outside. Another five minutes went by, still no movement of cars. I looked again and what I saw made me quite angry. There were droves of cars turning in from the highway ramp and taking up those empty rows of parking spots. What??? I was running out of gas, time and patience. Normally I’m one of the calmest persons on the road but this time before anyone could stop me I got out of car to go talk to that first car driver and argue with him angrily.   I was also thinking “This is the end of the ski trip. I know it’ll be terribly disappointing to others. We’ll just tour Denver but not come for skiing”

Puzzled and angry I took about two steps and what did I see? A bright shiny penny on brilliant white fresh soft powdery piles of snow in front of me. “IN GOD WE TRUST” flashed through my mind and my whole being instantaneously relaxed into total calm and peace. Thanking my Guru Ji for the reminder I thought, “Oh, Ok. This situation has happened for my best even though I don’t see it yet. Wait and see. We were meant to be here”.

I found out that there had been a horrible crash, a pile up of twenty-four cars on the highway right below where we were. The accident had happened soon after we had pulled off the highway into the Loveland Pass parking lot. The highway was completely shut down and all the cars were being redirected to Loveland Pass parking lot. That’s why the first car in our line was not moving because he was told not to budge so as to let all the cars off of highway to come through.

“We are meant to be here. So we are staying until the place closes today” . The guys went skiing and I went to sit in the lodge as usual. I was able to find a table with three empty chairs. Everyone was having lunch already in there but since we had just arrived there I was waiting for the guys to come in for lunch after they had done some skiing.

While waiting I was deep in thought:

1. Going to A-Basin is out of the question.
2. For rest of the trip either we are going to just come to Loveland Pass for Skiing for remaining days which will be a big disappoint to the guys
3. or not even come for skiing at all which would be even bigger disappointment.
4. But, no way, we are going to risk going up that mountain pass to A-Basin. There will continue to be heavy snow from today onwards. It’s just not possible to drive our car up there.  What a let-down it will be.
5. “But there is some reason why we are meant to be at here today. The penny’s message is clear. But I don’t know yet why”.

“Is this chair available? May I sit here to have my lunch?”  I was shaken out of my thoughts by a pleasant male voice. The lodge was so packed there didn’t seem to be any other empty chairs available. He sat next to me and started chatting while eating his lunch.

It turned out that he was one of ski teachers of a kids ski club. He was born and raised around the local ski resorts. He knew every nook and cranny of that whole area. I told him of our predicament. He explained to me of an alternative route to the A-Basin ski resort which would be a bit longer but much safer drive. He also advised for us to put snow chains on our car tires among many other essential suggestions.

There is no way we could have figured out that alternative route by ourselves. Our GPS wasn’t showing that alternative either. I’ll say that person saved our trip and possibly our lives.

Day 4 to Day 8 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver

We followed the new route directions the remaining days. It did take longer each way but it turned out to be amazingly joyful trip. That vacation was meant to be. There were layers and layers of many other revelations, conversations and events that occurred during this fateful trip.

The Invisible and the Formless appears as visible form even if in the form of a penny on top of fresh falling snow or as a local person who happens to know every nook and cranny of the area?….His ways are joyously unlimited. 🙂

Om Shanti,shanti,shanti

Ritu

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Photo Credit: Ben Wesemann