As I worked on scanning some photos for my most recent genealogy project, I came across these photos and wanted to tell you a story this week for ThemeSong.... A note added on OUR experience of driving over Wolf Creek Pass years ago, found below. I hope the embedding works so you can HEAR the song as you read the lyrics; it's nearly a 'must' to hear it and then read what our trip over the pass was like........
Me an' Earl was haulin' chickens on a flatbed out of Wiggins, and we'd spent all night on the uphill side of thirty-seven miles of hell called Wolf Creek Pass. Which is up on the Great Divide?
We was settin' there suckin' toothpicks, drinkin' Nehi and onion soup mix, and I said, "Earl, let's mail a card to Mother then send them chickens on down the other side. Yeah, let's give 'em a ride."
[Chorus]
Well, Earl put down his bottle, mashed his foot down on the throttle, and then a couple'a boobs with a thousand cubes in a nineteen-forty-eight Peterbilt screamed to life. We woke up the chickens.
Well, we roared up offa that shoulder sprayin' pine cones, rocks, and boulders, and put four hundred head of them Rhode Island reds and a couple a' burnt-out roosters on the line. Look out below; 'cause here we go!
[CHORUS]
Well, we commenced to truckin' and them hens commenced to cluckin' and then Earl took out a match and scratched his pants and lit up the unused half of a dollar cigar and took a puff. Says "My, ain't this purdy up here."
I says, "Earl, this hill can spill us. You better slow down or you gonna kill us. Just make one mistake and it's the Pearly Gates for them eight-five crates a' USDA-approved cluckers. You wanna hit second?"
[Chorus]
Well, Earl grabbed on the shifter and he stabbed her into fifth gear and then the chromium-plated, fully-illuminated genuine accessory shift knob come right off in his hand. I says, "You wanna screw that thing back on, Earl?"
He was tryin' to thread it on there when the fire fell off a' his cigar and dropped on down, sorta rolled around, and then lit in the cuff of Earl's pants and burned a hole in his sock. Yeah, sorta set him right on fire.
I looked on outta the window and I started countin' phone poles, goin' by at the rate of four to the seventh power. Well I put two and two together, and added twelve and carried five; come up with twenty-two thousand telephone poles an hour.
I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide, his lip was curled, and his leg was fried. And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard. I says, "Earl, I'm not the type to complain; but the time has come for me to explain that if you don't apply some brake real soon, they're gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon."
Well, Earl rared back, and cocked his leg, stepped as down as hard as he could on the brake, and the pedal went clear to the floor and stayed there, right there on the floor. He said it was sorta like steppin' on a plum.
Well, from there on down it just wasn't real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of 'em looked like a can full'a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?
Sign says clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine. Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten, like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen, and we took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a Lousiana swamp. Went down and around and around and down 'til we run outta ground at the edge of town. Bashed into the side of the feed store... in downtown Pagosa Springs.
[CHORUS]
- - -
I wanted to paste the entire song this week 'cause of our story....This song came out and was heard throughout the USA for some time...it became a favorite of ours especially after our experience driving over the mountain pass. First of all, Wolf Creek Pass, at it's summit is just a few feet from being at the elevation of 11,000 feet above sea level!!! And yes, as the song goes, there ARE hairpin turns, and narrow parts ... all because of the mountainous, treacherous, terrain. AND YES....there are semi-trucks that make use of this highway in Southwestern Colorado. I drove it! I was behind the steering wheel...and I met semi trucks that would slow up my own climbing momentum where I would have to shift down to a lower gear just to keep the car from rolling backwards. Seriously!!! Anyway, to make a long story shorter....what seemed like hours of climbing, and shifting gears constantly, we finally made it to the 'peak'!!! Now for the descent -----the transmission overheated!!! Breaks were hot!!!! All I can say is: Thank God We Had a Manual Transmission!!!! With breaks giving out...we were traveling downhill at a great speed!! It WAS like stepping on a plum when I'd try to depress the break pedal!!! And luckily, after the long, steep grade descent, the transmission began to cool down enough to get into a lower gear to slow the car's momentum down!!!! By the time we hit 'level ground', the four of us, Bud, Myself, Irene, and Erik....we all wanted a beer!!!! Yes, the four of us, pulled off the highway and set in the car and drank beer. And yes, the kids were way under drinking age...but what the heck!!! That was an ordeal we will never forget. Good thing about it all was...we made it down in one piece...not found in some deep ravine with mangled bodies and scrap metal that was once a car....I've often thought about this....what would we have done if a highway patrol drove by and saw not even teenagers yet ---drinking beer with their parents. Oh, and another thing that stands out in my vivid memory of my driving experience....that was the ONLY time Erik and Irene were silent and not arguing over something!!!!!!
These photos are scanned of one of our trips over Wolf Creek Pass...before and after our ride of a lifetime!!! All of them are Wolf Creek Pass, and one --a little bit just before entering Pagosa Springs, Colorado. I won't even get INTO our driving over Red Mountain Pass!!!! ---Red Mountain Pass is even HIGHER!!!
