The Eisenhower Tunnel

At over 11,000 ft. and nearly two miles long, the Eisenhower Tunnel is one of the highest vehicle tunnels in the world and the longest along the U.S. Interstate highway system.  Just after sunrise on Saturday, December 22, Sara, Jonathan, and I were ready to pass through it just minutes away from our destination in Silverthorne, Colorado, and the beginning of our much anticipated 10-day Christmas vacation.  But just before we entered, something dreadful happened…

“Oh my, the windshield is icing up,” I said as we entered the tunnel, “I can’t see through it!”  The outside temperature had reached the point where the ice and mud from passing cars was sticking to my windshield.  The windshield wiper fluid had frozen shut.  I couldn’t see anything in front of me!

“Well, we are inside the tunnel; can’t pull over,” Jonathan commented from the passenger seat.  “I will turn up the heat on the defroster and maybe that will warm the windshield so the ice will melt.”

Once inside the tunnel I couldn't stop.  There was no way to turn back and there was no shoulder to turn off on.  Days before our trip, I had watched YouTube videos of winter-weather highway car pileups, each one caused by a reckless driver going too fast who didn’t respect the slippery ice and blinding snow.  Now I could only imagine myself being the head car in a massive pileup inside the Eisenhower Tunnel.  I could see my face flashed on the evening news with the subtitle:  Tropical low-lander causes high altitude chaos!

Behind me I heard Sara’s window roll down.  “Dad, so far you are OK on this side,” she announced as she watched cars in the left lane pass us.” 

“Dad, you are getting kinda close to the wall over here,” Jonathan warned.

I was dependent on their guidance as I navigated the tunnel.  I could barely make out the taillights of the car some distance ahead of us.  Since the tunnel was straight I thought that as long as the faint red glow stayed in the same place on my frozen, mud-covered windshield, I should be OK.  But that meant I had to maintain my speed to keep up with the car. 

“Dad, you are starting to swerve into the left lane a bit,” Sara announced.

“Got plenty of room over here,” Jonathan advised.

I thought about the thousands of cars that would pass through the tunnel that day, each one prepared with anti-freeze wiper fluid, snow tires, and a lot of experience.  I also thought I was going to wreck the car by either scraping it along the wall or running into another car, a terrible beginning to our vacation, if it had a beginning!

It was the longest 3 minutes of my life as I blindly sped through the darkened tunnel.  I was praying without ceasing.  Suddenly the windshield began to brighten.  “We are almost through,” Sara observed.

Then we were out!  “Dad, you can pull over now,” Jonathan advised.  “There’s a wide shoulder here.”

Seconds later I was breathing again as we waited along the side of I-70.  The defroster began heating the windshield enough to melt the ice as the wipers swished the muddy slosh away.  Within minutes we were back on the road with a clear windshield and a beautiful view of a Colorado winter wonder land.

Is there a lesson in all of this?  Well, of course, be prepared.  But as we continue through 2019, we will have some dark tunnels to pass through.  There will be unexpected events, scary happenings, and heart-pounding moments.  I hope you have some great people to help you along, as I did.  Swallow a big heaping of fool-driven courage and just keep going.  Praying sure helps.  Most of all, always remember, as you have heard before, there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

Our 2018 Family Picture: Jonathan, Sara, David and Andrea with Christy, Dad, Martha and Philip, Hannah and Daniel