We headed toward our winter home last Tuesday. Weather suggested it would be clear sailing all the way to Bozeman. The weather forecast lied. By Tuesday mid-day it was looking a wee bit iffy that we would even get to Montana. A Pacific coast storm was heading straight toward Southwest Montana a day before our planned arrival.
A decision was made that we'd keep driving onward until Kansas City, MO...then we drove past KC and set our sites on the Super 8 in Nebraska City, NE or rather on the Iowa side of the Missouri River. A new record of 18 hours of driving while Cooper slept was set. Even though we'd driven farther than normal it still looked as if we'd end up stuck in a town far from our destination if the forecast held.
Next morning we found ourselves in negative temperatures. Minus 4 degrees... Cooper didn't seem to pay much attention as he did his business. After a few hours we hit the other side of warmer air and the temperatures rose up into the forty's. We kept tabs on the weather as we drove through Nebraska and the radar showed snow starting to fall all over Montana's western edge... creeping toward Bozeman. So much for the system slowing down.
Wyoming still had blue sky so we decided to keep driving. Cheyenne had wind warnings (30 to 40 MPH with gusts to 65 MPG) and closed I-25 to light trailers. We drove on... shall we say it was a tad bit windy. Near Chugwater, WY we saw a tractor trailer laying across the southbound lane of I-25...when they say no light trailers they mean it. Quite a few RV's and smaller box trucks had pulled off the highway to wait out the wind.
Just outside of Casper we watched a box truck precariously list sideways in the wind. We never witnessed him falling all the way, but it was scary watching the truck lean over on the wind. Since we still had not encountered any snow we decided to keep driving towards Montana after dinner. The radar still showed snow falling, but it did not appear to be falling along the I-90 corridor. At least that was what the road reports and cameras along the highway were stating.
The good news as we drove along was that the temperatures remained above freezing except for a 30 minute stretch as we entered Montana. Other than that we managed to drive more or less at the speed limit. We arrived safely in Bozeman after another 18 hour day... Cooper slept the day away once again. Maybe he realized he's heading to Bark City and needed to rest up for playtime with his doggie buddies.
When we woke the next morning we were extremely glad that we'd decided to keep driving. The interstate was snow and ice covered. Not a happy thought to have to drive any period of time on slick roads... well except to head out to the slopes at mid-day to play in 9 inches of fresh powder.
It was so worth it.
