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Decision to NOT take the coach!

Posted 02-20-2019 at 07:45 AM by MEWright

We planned a trip for the presidents day weekend to run up to Durango Colorado and get some skiing in. Nice long weekend, great for a quick trip.

Dilema;
Take the coach or drive and get a hotel each way???

16 Hours drive in my truck 18 in the coach.
75-85mph in the truck, 65-70mph in the coach
12.8 MPG in the truck - 8MPG in the coach
Additional fuel over hotel costs???
Weather????

We decided to drive my truck and this turned out to be the best decision EVER...

I was slightly worried about the cold, have to possibly run the gennie while we were in the condo to keep everything above freezing and chains. I dont want to worry about chains.

Leaving Austin the drive was great, 8 hours to Clovis, Hotel over night, 8 more hours to Durango.

Upon arriving in Durango, seriously almost exactly at the city limits sign it started snowing. From Durango to Purgatory its 30 miles and within those 30 miles it went from snowing, to almost white out, fresh powder on the roads to needing 4 wheel drive, to almost needing chains. 2wd cars and trucks lined the shoulders and ditches.

Over the 4 days we were there we needed 4WD every day to get in and out of our condo parking garage, 4WD to get into the parking lot of Purgatory, 4WD to get to the pool and hot tubs and on one occasion we actually needed chains to get out of a parking lot even in 4WD..

The temps were from 20F down to -2F....


The drive home is were I was the most pleased we decide to NOT drive the coach.

Leaving Durango Sunday morning it was -2F at 7am. My F250 7.3 liter diesel did not want to start. Damn glad I had anti gel in the tank. Took an hour to get it started (no where to plug in my block heaters in the parking garage.)

Headed out of Durango into Aztec on the way to Albuquerque it started to snow, and I mean snow..

3 trucks, me and 2 others hooked up and played follow the leader all the way. All 3 were 4WD and did I mention it was SNOWING... We went from nice little snow storm to 3-5 inches on the pavement within 50 miles of our 3.5 hour drive, allot of it was darn near a white out.

Now this area is high desert so its pretty flat (ish) no major steep inclines but flat (ish) hilly areas, wide roads, decent shoulders but you could not see any of those features . You stayed in the tracks of the truck in front of you and you hoped he or she stayed on the road. It would snow hard then it would stop and the snow would melt pretty fast on the drive lanes then the spray off the truck in front of you would freeze on your truck. My truck looked like an black icicle.

30 minutes later and we would have needed chains for much of the drive.

We passed a 8 car pile up and 9-10 cars off in the the ditches...

We saw several coached from BPs to 5ers and a few large coaches all going slow and hating it. One coach on the shoulder unable to get traction. At least he was off the main drive lane.

About 30 miles from Albuquerque the snow stopped and it was clear from that point home.

Had we taken the coach we wold have had crazy freeze issues, needed chains, possibly crashed in the storms and overall scared the hell out of me and the family.

Sometimes its better to leave em at home.
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