It's like being snow bound, but the weather is nicer. The highway to town is still closed from last evening's rockslide. This morning I stood on my bridge and watched the road for 5 minutes, and not a single car, so I know it is true.

You can see the my driveway slanting toward the highway from left to right, and just above it the guardrails on the highway. That black line across the picture is a power line - the phones for Estes Park.



It is a hinky feeling being stuck at home. Now, of course, 99% of the time I am perfectly happy to not have to go anywhere, but it's when one can't leave that cabin fever sets in. All of a sudden I feel like going grocery shopping, the mall beckons, and the hardware store is irresistible.

I could risk going uphill to Estes Park, but I don't trust the Barney Fifes up there to let me come back home, even though my driver's license address is correct for here.

I've had a lot of fishing customers lately, and I'll bet anything they've been turned away because they can't convince the cops that the road closure is downstream from me, if they even know. Maybe they are fishing somewhere waiting for the road to open.

Here is the official description of the event:



DRAKE — A rock slide in the Big Thompson Canyon blocked U.S. 34 west of Drake on Friday.
The rocks fell onto the highway about a mile west of Drake shortly before 5:30 p.m.

The Colorado Department of Transportation reported at 6:25 p.m. that it had closed U.S. 34 in both directions at mile marker 75, and spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said in a press release that it would be closed at least until today.

Bill Lundquist of the Big Thompson Canyon Volunteer Fire Department said the department has responded to five small rock slides this year, more than usual. This is the biggest.

One rock that stands nearly as tall as a firetruck caused the westbound lane to buckle as it wedged itself where the shoulder and asphalt meet.

Another large rock left a hole in the eastbound lane before landing on the riverbank.

In her release, Stegman said the mountainside from which the rocks fell still is unstable, “and crews are unable to thoroughly assess its safety in the dark.”

Estes Park resident Pete McKellar said he drove past the slide on his way to Loveland shortly after it occurred.

“There’s a hole the size of a car, about 4 feet deep,” he said.

“There are a lot of rocks all over the place,” McKellar said. Firefighters were directing traffic around the slide, he said.

“We had to drive over into the dirt to get around the rocks.”

I'd like to have tried.