It was the coldest morning we had experienced on the trip - 29 degrees F. After packing up, I jumped in to start the Model A. Cranked it over about four times and... nothing. Didn't hit a lick. Oh, crap.
After I opened the hood it didn't take long to see why. Model As have a choke rod in front of the passenger seat that you pull up to close the choke plate. There's a small "tit" on the choke bellcrank that engages a groove at the bottom of the choke rod and it had popped out of the groove. And at such a low temp, there was no way the car would start without some choke. We re-engaged the connection and she fired right up. Whew...
It was about a 100 mile run to Laramie, where as mentioned earlier we left the interstate to take Route 287 toward Ft Collins, Loveland, and then Denver. It was a glorious ride, as the pictures below hopefully will show. The road was a little rough in places but not too bad. The scenery was some of the best we've seen so far, as the interstate routes generally traverse the middle of large valleys with the mountains quite a distance away. That is not the case with Route 287, where the mountains are much closer.
Had another little scare soon after we headed south from Laramie.
We were going uphill slightly, but the car was really struggling; it wouldn't even make 40 MPH with full throttle on what seemed to be a very slight uphill grade on a long straight road. Then I looked over at the grass along the roadside and it was bent backwards at about 90 degrees, opposite our direction of travel. Sure enough, there were a couple of flags at a roadside store a mile down the road and they were extended like they were stiffly starched.
It seems we were driving into a serious headwind, on the order of 40-50 MPH and it was a real relief when I figured out that this was what was slowing the car down so much... LOL!
When we got to Ft. Collins, traffic, which had been light up to then, became a problem. Route 287 goes straight through town and it was bumper-to-bumper for about five miles, with a traffic light every block. I had forgotten it was Halloween as well as Friday and that combination has in the past caused major traffic issues (read: near gridlock) back home in Atlanta, as so many people take off early. Seemed to have that same effect in Ft. Collins.
The delay was making it too late for us to visit Bert's Model A Center in Denver as planned, so that is on the agenda for today.
Because of the hour, we turned left to get back on I-25 South to cover the last 25 miles or so to Denver and promptly got embroiled in Friday afternoon rush hour. Not fun at all, but all too familiar to an Atlanta resident.
We stopped on the I-25 entrance ramp to check the coolant level and I began to hear this weird yapping sound. Looking around, I spotted a prairie dog's hole just a few feet off the edge of the ramp with one of the critters sticking his head out and barking at us. Wanted to get a picture to show you, but as soon as I got the camera from the car and started back to take a shot, the prairie dog dived for the depths of his burrow not to be seen again. Not a sight I've ever seen in the southeast...
Reached the hotel in southwest Denver about 5:30 PM to end our day's travel and was glad of it. We've decided to spend two nights in Denver, as we did on the way out, as much to let my sore butt recover a little as anything else...
Here's some pics from Route 287.
We've seen these slatted fences all along our routes in the west and I assume they are snow fences to keep drifts of the highways. Saw some very old ones and some fairly new ones. I wonder how they decide where to position them?
Looks like this hasn't been a functioning post office for a good while.
