Mission Possible

Driving around the Colorado high country a few days ago, I was listening to this NEW radio station with a Vail-Minturn license. You could hear it all over the place in three counties. Let's see I think the call letters were KKVM. VM! I get it. Vail-Minturn. Pretty sure the dial positiion was...lets see..yeah...104.7? The Identity name? THE MILE. Seems it has something to do with an out of bounds ski run, called the Minturn Mile...some sort of "right of passage" challenge in the Vail Valley.

Now I remember all this because I heard this woman come on the station, and in a very non-preachy tone talk about the importance of turning negatives into positives. It really got me to thinkin'.

And, oh, in the interest of full disclosure? I'm working for this station. I'm locked into a series of high country, out of bounds features under the label, MilePosts. If you don't have any high country trips planned, you'll soon to able to hear them on-line from your couch at home.

Anyway, let's get back to this turning negatives into positives thing. I had been informed (by my new KKVM friend Jayme) that getting up to the station was going to be a little tricky this day. Construction projects were forcing interstate motorists to sit in their cars for hellish length's of time, in unfriendly heat. So I, in my wisdom, opted to drive an extra 100 miles to beat the congestion. But there are always trade offs, aren't there?

Initially I started out thinking about all the things I "HAD" to do to make this trip work. For instance I HAD to travel on some one and two lane roads. Getting behind an RV on a 7 percent grade is no fun. And what that does to time and distance between 7-11's toilets can be tortuous.

But I was in no hurry, and my tolerance quotient was under control. And then in Leadville I hear this inspirational pitch on the radio...and the thought came to me in a HEATED VISION, " what if I just changed all my HADS to GOTS.

SOooooo? Tolerance suddenly turned to exhilaration? Like I GOT to use two porta-potties. How often does that happen in one day. I GOT to drive on bumpy roads that appeared not to have been maintained in decades. Sure keeps you awake. HOW COOL! I GOT to drive behind these four couples on motorcycles from Arkansas, who slowed on every turn to take pictures. How DELIGHTFUL to see tourists having so much fun.

Well, with my new "GET TO" attitude in tow, I opted to take the congested interstate route home. What a joy, let me tell you. Going over Vail Pass is typically a 20 minute journey? This day? I GOT to sit in traffic for over two hours while crews applied new asphalt. I got to watch this poor sweat drenched worker hold up a sign that read SLOW. I grinned as I thought, "HOW SLOW CAN YOU GO?" I laughed aloud as I watched driver after driver pull to the shoulder to keep his or her engine from blowing up. And I GOT to be part of all this There were so many "friendly gestures" being shared amongst so many. I GOT some of those gestures tossed my way. WHAT FUN!

Some people were getting out of their running cars to see if they could walk faster than the traffic. I GOT to see some of them disappear over the horizon. Hey, I got home in pretty much one piece. I just can't wait until I HAVE (whoops) GET to do this again.

And, yeah, I'm biased...but listening to "104.7 The Mile" is going to make HAVING or GETTING to do it a whole lot easier.