On A Bus Somewhere In The Rockies

We landed in denver at noon today and boarded a puddle jumper to aspen. Just as we were about to pull away from the gate, the pilot canceled the flight because of high winds. The flight was going to be extremely bumpy and there was a good chamce we couldn't land in aspen

I was down that decision but when we got back into the terminal, the customer service line was two hours long and we found out that every flight to aspen was overbooked for the next 36 hours and that I70 was closed through the vail pass due to blowing snow and high winds

I saw a couple headed off with a United customer service person so I made Jessica wait in line for me and walked over to them Turns out United had a bus full of people from earlier flights headed to Aspen. I asked if there were any seats left and they said five. I told them I had five people going to aspen and she said to grab our bags and come with her

The gotham gal was working on another plan which was to hire a car service to take us up to Aspen when I70 reopened but she did as ordered by the customer service person and quickly we were all on a bus headed to aspen

The driver knew a back way around the vail pass and so off we went. Well it turns out this back way is a seven hour detour through the heart of the rockies

Beautiful country but not what the gotham gal and my kids had in mind this evening

To make matters worse, I just got an email from my friend david who scored me a ticket to see arcade fire tonight at judson church saying 'I just saw the next great rock band' Ugh

Anyway, we'll be in aspen in a couple hours but my family may not talk to me for the rest of the weekend

When travelling I always follow the rule 'when the train leaves the station, get on it'.Who knows if it was the right call tonight, but that's what I did.

Comments

[Chris]

Welcome to the fun of trying to get to Aspen! This is really when having some sort of private jet makes sense - that airport closes very frequently, and when it does, you're on the 7 hour bus. If you're flying private, you just go when the weather clears, no problem.

Never schedule a flight in there during the night - the approach based on flying using the instruments is not approved by the FAA, which means that if there is any cloud cover at all, the flight will be cancelled.

I'd keep an eye on things when it's time to leave too - if the inbound flight doesn't make it, there's no plane to take you out either. Your choices then are to wait 36h for the next flight, try to get on a flight out of Eagle/Vail (best call) or drive down to Denver and get a flight from there.

The silver lining to this cloud is that the difficulty in getting there keeps the crowds down. Not many people want to come time after time to endure the 7h bus ride.

Good luck, and glad to hear it's snowing - I have a trip coming up in a few weeks.

[Ada]

Ah the fun of the unexpected adventure.

[ted]

That's horrendous. 7 hours?! At least you have something to do! 1001 bottles of blog on the wall!

[Michael Parekh]

At least you seem to have a wireless internet connection going from Denver to Aspen.

I love Aspen in the winter, but hate the game of Russian roulette around getting in and out of there, whether by air or by road.

I vow never to go back after every one of those horrible travel stories, but find myself back there anyway.

Hope you all get in and out safe and sound. Oh, and have a bit of fun.

[Erik Schwartz]

I spent 12 hours at the jetBlue terminal at JFK on Thursday. The couple sitting next to me had been there since 7AM the previous day.

I'd rather be making slow progress on a bus knowing I'd be skiing the next day than sitting in an airport terminal being fed bullshit.

Aspen airport can be exciting even in summer due the to T-storms. My wife was singing at the Aspen Music Festival (back while we were dating), I flew in to hear her. Plane came in during a t-storm. We got caught in some wind shear and dropped a few thousand feet. It was the only time I ever wondered if I'd survive an airline flight.

[Nic Wolff]

All that work to get to Aspen, and there's a foot of dry powder right here at Windham!

OK, sour grapes.

[Charlie Crystle]

hotel in denver, try again next day. could have been 7 hours of downtown fun.

[Andrew]

'when the train leaves the station, get on it' for a moment then, I thought I'd stumbled into a VC cliche of the week post...

[scott partee]

Those winds were apparently pretty insane: up to 100 MPH by some account I read. Several windshields on airplanes cracked due to the force. Good call not to fly in that -- especially on those damned puddle jumpers they use to get around Colorado. I refuse to use them anymore and, instead, always tried to fly Eagle direct on a 75. You may want to consider that next year, but I don't know what cities serve Eagle directly other than ATL. The good thing about Eagle is that it's on the western side of the divide.

7 hours to Aspen during a storm isn't so bad. Sometimes, I think it is amazing I made it to where I was going at all back in my high school and college days. I am curious what the back route would be that would be *safer* than Vail Pass. Especially since a lot of the passes are closed in the winter. But it is doable, as you can now see. Of course, a lot of things are "doable". I drove from Colorado Springs to Grand Junction via Denver and over Vail Pass with no brakes once -- just my parking brake.

Highway 82 is a killer. Literally.

Best way to be in Aspen is to stay in Aspen.

[Brad Feld]

Call us locals the next time and we'll help you navigate the treacherous backroads of the Rocky Mountain West.

[mcsteen]

"when the train is in the station, take it" is great advice, but you have to known that there is huge fundamental difference between a train and a bus!

have fun!! get some air!

[Mo]

Fred, I would have had the oft chance of meeting you, had I not broken my arm snow boarding a few weeks back. I had to cancel my trip. My friends flew out from DC yesterday and called me this afternoon when they were stuck in traffic on I-70.

Well, safe travel there and back and safe winter sports for the entire Wilson family.

Looks like I will have to wait till next year.

[Mo]

Did I say 'oft' I meant 'rare'. :)

[TheBillfold]

Man, getting in and out of Colorado sucks. Gotham Gal has the right idea about the Caribbean next year.