Trust the Process of Life.
In my last post, I mentioned how I have been finding Pennies in the most unexpected and unbelievable places. I also mentioned I’d write about another recent incident on December 28, 2016. It serves as a continuing reminder to Trust the process of life and to Trust in God.
Amazing co-incidences happened around Thanksgiving 2016, which gave us hope that we could take a long-awaited Ski Vacation to Colorado for the first time. In a hurry, without looking at too many details, we arranged a two-week vacation. Our plan was to stay in Denver, Colorado, so we could tour the city and drive eight of those days to A-Basin Ski Slopes for skiing. On a good day without traffic and weather delays, the drive was supposed to be about 1hr 15 minutes, which wasn’t a big deal.
It was the best ever vacation of my life. Many amazing things happened, and one of them was how a penny found in time saved our ski trip.
Day 1 Drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes (13000 feet elevation) from Denver:
It was a pleasant mild day when we started for A-Basin. The route was meant to be fast highway driving, followed by about 10 miles of slow mountain pass driving. To begin with, there was a lot of traffic on the highway, causing an extra one-hour delay. That was fine, but the experience of the mountain pass road was a surprise to me. The road had mostly icy snow on it all the way. Our car wasn’t equipped for driving in snowy conditions; it wasn’t 4-wheel drive, and it didn’t have snow tires or snow chains. The road was slippery at times. We had to drive extra carefully and slowly. The road was winding, creating blind turns at times. The path was quite steep and single lane too. Most of the way, there were no barricades on that road. Looking out of the car back seat window, seeing mountain slopes 10000+ feet down off the road, was not where I wanted to focus.
Finally, two and a half hours later, we reached the ski slopes and were happy to be able to park the car in the closest parking space. It was a great fun day of skiing for the guys while I sat in the lodge. Slopes closed at 4 pm. By the time we packed up and headed back, it was already getting dark. More careful driving, and we were back in Denver in two and a half hours.
Day 2 Drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver:
It was the same as Day 1, except this time, when we reached the mountain pass road, I thought to myself, ‘This is too darn risky of a drive up the mountain pass. It is not even snowing yet over the highways, but when it starts snowing, how will the drive be?’
I noticed my muscles were tense, and I was even holding my breath at different twists and turns of the road. Thankfully, we reached up there but could only find a parking spot much further away from the lodge. It was a long walk in the snow.
I just didn’t expect to be walking long enough in the snow for my shoes and feet to get wet. I just hadn’t had the time to buy waterproof snow shoes. I had checked out a couple of stores near the hotel with no success. So I postponed the purchase for the following day because it meant we’d have to hunt for some stores farther away.
On the way back, right at the junction of the highway and steep mountain pass, we saw signs of another Ski Slopes area: ‘Loveland Pass’. We decided to give it at least one try someday even though, based on online reviews, it didn’t fit our criteria for the features we were looking for in Skiing.
Dec 28, 2016, Day 3 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver: – Divine message.
Now, this day was quite different. There was very heavy white powdery snow all around. The whole highway drive was extra slow. If it took three hours just to get on the highway, how long would it take to go up the mountain pass road? The snow was so heavy that the front windshield was fogging up frequently. The defroster in the car was running at full strength. By that time, actually, I was in no mood to even attempt going up to A-Basin. It looked too dangerous. Instead, since we were almost by Loveland Pass Ski Slopes, we decided to just go there.
Guess what? It seemed like everyone else had the same idea, too. The huge snowy white parking lot was packed with cars. Just like many other cars, we, too, inched slowly through the parking lot, looking for a parking spot. When we were passing through the narrow passageway of the last row, suddenly, all cars stopped. There were two cars in front of us and several behind us.
We waited five minutes, Ten minutes, Fifteen minutes. No movement. All of us were quiet, but I’m sure everyone was wondering what the delay was. Also, I was thinking,
- There are only 4 hours left for ski slopes to shut down. After you put on all your ski gear and get ready to ski, it’ll be another hour gone.
- If we keep idling in the car, with the defroster and heat running, we’ll run out of gas before we even go back.
- The sooner we get some skiing done, the sooner we can leave. Otherwise, it’ll be too dark and a snowy highway. It might take four to five hours to get back to Denver.
- No, wait. I’m even giving up the idea of skiing here. Once we can get out of this parking lot, we will head right back to Denver.
- I’ve also almost decided that this is the end of the entire ski trip. The road conditions are too risky, and we cannot even consider going up the hazardous steep mountain pass.
- Most importantly, I really feel the urgency to go to the restroom and take a pee.
I confess I was getting anxious and a bit angry. No one said a word, though. I opened the car door to take a quick peek at what was happening ahead of us.
To my amazement, I saw the first car standing there with at least two rows of cars’ worth of parking space available right in front. The first car just had to make a left turn, go to the end of the row, and park!
I sat back down in the car, puzzled. It felt like -10⁰ F outside. Another five minutes went by, and still no movement of cars. I looked again, and what I saw made me quite angry. There were droves of cars turning in from the highway ramp and taking up those empty rows of parking spots. What??? I was running out of gas, time, and patience. Normally, I’m one of the calmest people on the road, but this time, before anyone could stop me, I got out of the car to go talk to that first car driver and argue with him angrily. I was also thinking, “This is the end of the ski trip. I know it’ll be terribly disappointing to others. We’ll just tour Denver but not come for skiing”
Puzzled and angry, I took about two steps, and what did I see? A bright shiny penny on a brilliant white, fresh, soft, powdery layer of snow in front of me. “IN GOD WE TRUST” flashed through my mind, and my whole being instantaneously relaxed into total calm and peace. Thanking my Guru Ji for the reminder, I thought, “Oh, Okay. This situation has happened for my best even though I don’t see it yet. Wait and see.”
I found out that there had been a horrible crash, a pile-up of twenty-four cars on the highway right below where we were. The accident happened soon after we had pulled off the highway into the Loveland Pass parking lot. The highway was completely shut down, and all the cars were being redirected to the Loveland Pass parking lot. That’s why the first car in our line was not moving because he was told not to budge so as to let all the cars off of the highway come through.
Since no one was able to go anywhere anyway, we, too, parked the car right there. The guys went skiing, and I went to sit in the lodge as usual. I was able to find a table with three empty chairs. Everyone was already having lunch there, but since we had just arrived, I was waiting for the guys to come in for lunch after they had done some skiing.
While waiting, I was deep in thought:
- Going to A-Basin is out of the question.
- For the rest of the trip we are going to just come to Loveland Pass for Skiing for the remaining days which will be a big disappointment to the guys
- or not even come for skiing at all, which would be an even bigger disappointment.
- But, no way, we are going to risk going up that mountain pass to A-Basin. There will continue to be heavy snow from today onwards. It’s just not possible to drive our car up there. What a letdown it will be.
- “But there is some reason why we are meant to be here today. The penny’s message is clear, but I don’t know yet why.”
“Is this chair available? May I sit here to have my lunch?” I was shaken out of my thoughts by a pleasant male voice. The lodge was so packed that there didn’t seem to be any other empty chairs available. He sat next to me and started chatting while eating his lunch.
It turned out that he was one of the ski teachers of a kid’s ski club. He was born and raised around the local ski resorts. He knew every nook and cranny of that whole area. I told him of our predicament. He explained to me an alternative route to the A-Basin ski resort, which would be a bit longer but a much safer drive. He also advised us to put snow chains on our car tires, among many other essential suggestions.
We could not have figured out that alternative route by ourselves, and our GPS didn’t show it either. I’ll say that person saved our trip and possibly our lives.
Day 4 to Day 8 drive to A-Basin Ski Slopes from Denver
We followed the new route directions for the remaining days. It did take longer each way, but it turned out to be an amazingly joyful trip. That vacation was meant to be. There were layers and layers of many other revelations, conversations, and events that occurred during this fateful trip.
The Invisible and the Formless appears as visible form even if in the form of a penny on top of fresh falling snow or as a local person who happens to know every nook and cranny of the area?….His ways are joyously unlimited. J
