Monday, October 5, 2009

Day #8 - Plan B

This was the view when we opened our motel room door this morning.



I had to clean 8 inches of snow off the car before I could even open the doors. By the time I went all the way around the car, the first windows I cleaned were covered again. Fortunately the driveway out of the parking lot sloped down hill and we made it to the slush covered road without too much trouble. The steep, curvy highway going south from Custer to Hot Springs, SD was slippery at first and then wet. We were happy to be safely out of the snow covered Black Hills.



Yes, this is a photo of buffalo on a snowy hillside in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The route we were going to take through Wyoming today received the same snow we had in Custer which meant we had to come up with Plan B. Instead of turning west at Chadron, Nebraska we headed south to connect with Interstate 80. At first we encountered thick fog with visibility of about 100 yards and we were afraid Rebecca would completely miss Nebraska. The fog finally cleared shortly after the State line.



Rebecca's primary reason for this trip was to see Nebraska and today she did. We even have a photo to document the event. At one rest stop she got out to take a photo of a typical landscape and to "frolic through the grass."



Tonight we are staying at the quaint Gas Lite Motel in Laramie, Wyoming. We were hoping to drive around the weather and still be able to make it to Yellowstone tomorrow, but it looks like we will have to scrap our plans. They had snow last night and more is expected in the next several days. The temperature will be in the teens tonight. Right now I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow. Even the Interstate is closed west of here.

For a while today we considered driving south into Colorado and we have also talked about visiting Crater Lake as a substitute for Yellowstone. If the road doesn't open, I guess we will tour Laramie. When I planned the trip, all the information I read said it was rare to have snow before the third week of October. So much for research.

1 comment:

  1. Well your research was good. It is Mother nature who is outrageously capricious, eternally creative...research and data and statistics in all fields work on probability based on averages and cannot encompass the out of the ordinary. That is what flexible human beings with plans A B C and D are for.

    Love you two brave women!You are an inspiration.
    k

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