learning about hypoxia

We had a few days between doctor's appointments so we decided to tack on some adventures to the amazing Carol and Vern Excellent Adventure.

On Thursday we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming to see the Union Pacific 4014 steam locomotive, called the Big Boy, the world's largest steam locomotive. The 4014 weighs in at 1.2 million pounds, 120 feet long, with 4 guide wheels in front, followed by two sets of 8 drivers, each over 6 feet tall and followed by 4 guide wheels – 4-8-8-4. The “Big Boy” was built for scaling the slope between Ogden, Utah and Cheyenne. There were about 25 of them built. Two of them are in Cheyenne. Only 8 are still intact.

Recently the 4014 has been rebuilt and the UP has been driving it around the country to show it off. What we didn't realize was that the 4014 was in the steam house (shop) which is not open to the public. We were able to see a Big Boy, 4004, at one of the local parks.

Apparently, the shop has tours  a couple of times a year, so if you are interested in seeing a working locomotive, you should check out one of the rare steam tours. The UP is planning to take the 4014 on tour at the end of September, heading for California and looping through Texas and returning through Nebraska. Check the UP website if you are interested in the itinerary.

We took the city tour in an old shuttle bus. It was a good tour, except the wood seats were killing my boney ass.

We toured the UP Museum on Friday morning before we drove west toward Laramie, through the mountains. The scenery was beyond compare. We couldn't believe how green everything was. We headed south at Laramie, across Colorado, to Granby. Turned at Granby and headed to the west entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Showed our National Parks card and headed into the park. It was a beautiful day, sun shining, temperatures in the mid 70s and no wind.  The scenery was incredible.  We had hoped to see some leaves changing color, but it was early, we saw almost no color, a couple more weeks at least.

We were near the top of the mountain pass, we pulled into the Alpine Visitor Center, about 12,000 feet in elevation. I got to experience hypoxia, lack of oxygen. I needed to pee, so we drove through the parking lot and luckily got a handicap parking spot close to the toilets. I got out of the car with my portable oxygen machine, walked in front of the car, about 50 feet to the toilet, there was a line of about 20 people waiting so I headed for the back of the line. As I was walking I became aware that my breathing was becoming very labored, I was getting dizzy and things were getting darker. I looked at the curb and it was calling, saying, you need to sit down. I turned and saw a guy a few feet away, I asked him if he would help me get back to the car and he grabbed me and helped me back to the car. I was so dizzy. I don't remember that good samaritan's face, but I will forever remember his help. Thank you, sir, whoever you are.

We exited the parking lot, I was still in a daze. Noticed that my oxygen machine wasn't working properly, never thinking that it was not designed for that low of partial pressure. But it started cycling normally and I started getting oxygen. About 5 minutes from the visitor center, my thinking began to clear, I was still extremely short of breath but getting better. I put the oximeter on my finger and it read 60% oxygen, which meant that likely I was in the 50s, maybe the 40s in the past few minutes.

We drove down the mountain and spent the night in Estes Park. That is an expensive place!  The drive through Big Thompson was also very beautiful.  Lots of tourist traffic.

We drove into Fort Collins on Saturday morning and hooked up with a bunch of Bison fans at a local
bar and watched the Bison defeat the University of Delaware. Great game. Great group of people. We had a lot of fun. I hadn't slept well the night before so we found our hotel, late afternoon and I took a two-hour-long nap. Sunday we drove home through Cheyenne.

Nice little getaway. Dr.s appointment on Tuesday morning.