Thursday, May 30, 2013
Yeah we know, yesterdays blog was a little boring. So don't worry, today's story might make up for it!!!
We left Cody about 9:00 with no problems. Heading east towards the Mount Rushmore area.
Well, little did we know that while crossing the Big Horn Mountains on Hwy 16 that we would drive right into a snow storm. Elevation - close to 10,000. Dennis had both hands firmly on the wheel while I was busy taking pictures. It took my mind off the possibility of slipping right off the side of the mountain!!!!
The oncoming tractor trailers were barreling down the road as we headed up. I hope they made it safely.
Visibility was limited and snow was starting to accumulate. It was extremely windy which made things seem even worse!!! There were lots of snow fences to keep drifting snow off the road, but it was blowing everywhere!! It look like a winter wonderland. Luckily traffic was very light.
Wait until you see the video of the snow coming down and the wind blowing the snow across the road. It's awesome but scary!
Passed a snow plow earlier who we guess had dropped chemicals on the road which helped.
We were never so glad to start descending down the mountain. The further we went down the mountain the less snow we saw. Fortunately, we made it into the little town of Buffalo. Gassed up and wanted to find a place to eat lunch.
So if that wasn't exciting enough!! We hop on I-90 out of Buffalo, and thought we were going to be blown right off the road. There were winds gusting 40 to 50 miles an hour!!! Everybody was all over the road. Pulled over and had a sandwich while listening to the wind howling outside. We just looked at each other and shook our heads. Back on the road and Dennis hears a noise - he says "what is that". He looks in the mirror and the awning over the drivers side slide out is "flapping" with the high winds. We were afraid it was just going to blow right off the side. So we pull off on the shoulder to figure out what to do. First, he says he's got to go up on the roof to try to tie down the awning. I say, have you lost your mind, in this wind it would blow you right off!! Fortunately, with the bicycles in the way he can't get up the ladder!! So, only Dennis would come up with this idea!! He gets a rope - opens all the windows in the middle of the coach - ties one end of the rope inside - takes the rope outside one of the windows and throws it over the top of the coach to the other side and bring the rope inside and then out another window and continues this process until the awning is tied up and secure to the side of the motor-home.
We had to slow down to about 50 mph and kept going to the town of Gillette, WY. where we found a campground. We got settled at the Crazy Woman Campground (which I was by the time we got there). It continued to rain and the wind to blow, but Dennis was determined to get the chemicals off the car and motor-home. He put on his rain gear and went outside in the rain and 35 to 40 mph wind and washed both the car and Buttercup.
Not sure what we will do tomorrow, I guess it will be up to the rain and wind Gods (please be nice to us). We also have to find someone to look at the awning if Dennis can't fix it in the morning.
Its an adventure for sure!!!!!!
Night
Robin and Dennis.