April 20, 2021
Yesterday was hard. Not that earth shattering, bring you to your knees way but in that frustrating often times life way. Yes, even in this perfect life of ours we have rough days. This trip out has been wrought with changes since the beginning. We set out from Washington heading to South Dakota because we have business that we need to take care of there. Of course, that business has to be done by appointment only and those appointments are on their terms and schedule not ours. Should we not be able to make those appointments, they would have to be rescheduled when??? So we made our plans and away we went.
The weather has not been our friend in this planning. We looked at each place we expected to stop, check long range forecast and average temperature just like one is supposed to. We knew it would be cold in most stops even down into the 20's. That was okay we were ready and away we went. Got several stops into our journey and as always I checked the weather ahead, WHAT!! The night time temps changed and were heading down into single digits! NO!! That's too cold for us.
Okay, let's address this. There are only a few Interstates that travel west to east from the Washington area. Well really only one which is 90, but since we had decided to head south into Oregon across through Idaho to Utah so we could check out the Salt Flats and Great Salt Lake, our choice was to pick up 80 then head up and grab 90 in Wyoming. Knowing the weather is what it is we figured staying on the interstates when possible as our best bet. After seeing the weather across Wyoming was hitting single digits we quickly checked out the maps and weather a bit to the south. Ok so we could drop down to I 70 across to Colorado and then head north. Good plan, temps look good, cold but well in the mid to upper 20's. Cancel our reservations, make new ones and continue onward. Oh did I mention a lot of campgrounds aren't even open, makes things more challenging.
Oh well here we go, OOPS nope, now the lower temps across 70 in the Rockies have changed, UGH. Back to the drawing board. Okay, no problem we will drop down further south and cross the Rockies on 50. Perfect. Hahahahahah Mother Nature had other plans. As we start across the Rockies to the campground we found which is about half way across, I as always give the weather another look. WOW glad we didn't take 70 as there are areas there getting 5-10 inches of snow! Oh and the area we are going may get a dusting. Phew! Traveling on I keep and eye on the weather and about an hour out from our stop I see the forecast change. UH OH, heading down into the teens and possible 2-4 inches overnight. Now this might not seem like much to lot of you, but remember, we are in the Rockies, really big mountains, lots of twisty, knuckle whitening turns, steep inclines and declines. You really don't want to do that in snow, well, at least we don't. Had a pity party, teared a bit, pulled it together and Ok choice is stay where planned with the possibility of staying another night and have to have long travel days to make up time, or change plans and get over the mountains adding a couple of hours to our day. Problem with staying is what if there is more than a couple of inches??? Nope, not going to chance it, heading across and we will find some where else to stay. And, of course, just to add to the fun, there's construction in several places so now the tight road is even tighter!! UGH Again. I am trying to cancel and make new reservations in between losing cell service. A little stress, I'd say. But we did it, we got to the east side, found a place to stay, settled in and just stared at each other because now the forecast changed again and we could get 2-4 inches, Really?!?!? Oh well we shall worry about that in the morning. We were done.
Isn't interesting how sometimes things work out in the oddest ways, as if we were being pulled to be where we wound up for a reason one could never have guessed. We figured we would just take our time in the morning allowing things to warm up and if there was snow, giving the roads time to clear. We usually like to get on the road between 8 and 9 but not this time, we only had a three hour drive so we could wait til late morning. Being early risers we were up and about by 7, when there comes a knock on our door. The woman from the RV next to us is standing there all but in tears. She was locked out of her rig since 5:30, sitting in her car without the key to start it and it's 24 degrees out. The poor thing. She was trying to find a lock smith and couldn't, her husband wouldn't be back for a couple hours and she's in her jammies with just a light jacket over top, having meant to just step outside for a moment. Needless to say, we got her inside, with a blankie and cup of hot coffee. So glad we were there for her. Funny how things turn out, isn't it.
I shall be writing up our earlier travels days and posting them soon. Even with the trials and tribulations, we have seen such amazing vistas, and have been so fortunate to do so. This country has incredible beauty. All lives have their moments, even our perfect one!
Ta!
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