February 3, 2004

• Plans gone a rye…

  
  

  So Friday night my friend Evelyn comes by the house to pick Jason and I up to go out to these haunted locations around the Denver Metro Area.  Well, Jason all of a sudden isn’t feeling well and decides that it would be best for him to stay home.  We say, “Okay” and head out the door without him.  I was upset that he wasn’t coming with us considering it was his night off and I wanted to spend time with him…but also because we had rescheduled our plans of making this little excursion around him so that he could accompany us.

  
  

  Anyway, we headed out the door and loaded up into the car.  We had Evelyn’s 6 month old baby with us…who promptly fell asleep…holding my hand. (awe)  Now mind you, this little venture was not going to be anything dangerous or risky…we were just going to drive out to a couple places that there have supposedly been ghost sightings.  We were not going to be getting out of the car at any time during this trip.

  
  

  So…we drive out to Aurora to this place called, “Third Bridge” where supposedly 2 teenage boys were on their way out to a band concert, (they were drummers) when they lost control of their vehicle and went off of this bridge…third bridge.  The car supposedly rolled under the bridge and wasn’t found for several days after the accident occured.  Since their death, there have been reports of people hearing drums in the distance while on this bridge…and if you stay there long enough the drums get closer and closer until the sound is almost deafening.

  
  

  Me, being the adventurous one that I am, thought this would be a cool place to check out…but the last time that we’d attempted to go out to this site, we couldn’t find the correct location and wound up driving to the other side of the metroplex.  Evelyn told me that she’d been there before and that she new exactly where it was and that the reports were true.  So I thought that it would be good to go out there with her.  However, when we got to the location where we were supposed to turn off onto the side road that would take us to the bridge…the road wasn’t there.  Now mind you, I KNOW that we were in the correct location…I’d been down this road before and so had she…the road wasn’t there.  We even drove straight for a bit and turned around…came back to the same location where the side road should be…and it wasn’t there.  It was there the last time I was out there just a few months ago.  This place is located out in a rural farm district…and the road that you are to turn on is just after the pavement ends and the dirt raod begins…there is a stop sign there, the only stop sign for miles…so it’s kind of unmistakable.  Ya know? But on this night…it just wasn’t there.

  
  

  Well…after that, we decided that it would probably be best to just go to the other location and quit wasting our time on this one.

  
  

  So we get on the highway and start heading south towards Colorado Springs.  Now, I work out in Castle Rock…which is about halfway from Denver to Colorado Springs…and we got about 4 miles outside of Castle Rock when the car started making a strange noise.  The tires were making a strange noise…it just didn’t sound right.  Then all of a sudden…we heard this loud bang!!  It sounded like a 22 caliber rifle just shot off from the rear of the car!  Yup…a tire blew out…which isn’t good when you’re going over 75 mph on a busy highway at 10:15 at night…with a baby in the car mind you!

  
  

  Evelyn freaked out…and I talked her through pulling over to the side of the road as quickly and safely as possible.  Luckily for us, the car that was to the right of us saw the blow out and slowed down to let us over to the shoulder.  Once we came to a stop, I got out and looked at the back wheel on the passenger side…the tire was completely shredded and it had blown out from both sides.  All that was left was the middle section of the tire and part of it had melted to the wheel.

  
  

  Evelyn called her roadside assistance and they told her that it would be over an hour before someone could get to us…ummm…not good considering where we were.  She explained to them that there were only two females and an infant in the car and we were in a pretty secluded area…not safe.  So they called the CSP (Colorado State Patrol) and dispatched an officer out to our location.  We were about 1/4 of a mile from the next exit…but it was frigid outside.

  
  

  The officer showed up in about 10 minutes…he took a look at the wheel and said that we were lucky that we didn’t roll the vehicle while getting off the road.  No kidding?!  While he was talking to us, Evelyn got a call back from the towing company stating that it would be another 45 minutes before they could get to us.  By this point, she was very concerned about us being on the side of this busy highway with her baby girl in the car…afraid that we would be hit.

  
  

  The officer suggested that he change out the tire and that we take the baby out of the car and onto the embankment while he does so.  So we did just that and about 15 mintues later the tire was changed…and the donut (spare tire) was put on.  We carefully drove to the next exit and stopped at the gas station.  Evelyn called the towing company to let them know that the CSP assisted us, but wanted to know how far we could go on this spare tire.  They said that with the weight in the car, it would only go about 20 to 25 miles before deflating.  That wouldn’t do….we had about 25 miles to go to get back to my house.  So at about 11:30, I called Jason and told him what was going on and asked him to come pick up the baby and I.  That way we could follow Evelyn back to our house.

  
  

  So…he showed up about 15 minutes later…all bundled up in his big coat and looking very sleepy.

  
  

  I felt bad having to get him out of bed at such a late hour, but I wasn’t about to let her drive that car with so much weight in it and a baby…risking another blow out. 

  
  

  Anyway, we followed her back to my house (via back roads) and all was well.

  
  

  I tell ya what though…do ya ever get the feeling that you’re just not supposed to be doing something or going to a certain place?

  
  

  I don’t think that I was supposed to go out to those locations…I mean, look what happened.  Not once…but twice.

  
  

  Not fair I tell ya.

  • 11:51 am
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