We woke up this morning to a bright, blue sky. What a beautiful way to start the day! Mark checked the weather report online and discovered that even if we had taken the southern route, we would have run into snow storms. What’s more, we got out of Wisconsin before this storm was expected to drop three inches of snow there!
Billings, MT
The Yellowstone River
In Bozeman, we stopped at a truck stop for a much needed shower. When we got out, it looked like the mountains behind us were getting bad weather.
I cannot begin to tell you what a pleasure it was to take a shower this morning. My hair was so bad that I wasn’t taking my hat off night or day. I came out of the shower feeling human again! We hadn’t wanted to stop for a shower during the two stormy days because of concern about the road conditions and needing to make progress. Taking the shower today slowed our progress down some, but Mark and I were both happier when we headed out again!
Typical Montana
The Rocky Mountains
The main problem with visibility today was all the sand that was kicked up from the road after the snows. We finally bought some windshield washer fluid after having to stop twice to wash the windows.
We took a slight detour off the highway because Tucson was crossing her legs. On our way back to the highway, I saw this beautiful barn that looked a little precarious at the bottom of this mountain.
As it was getting on towards sunset, Mark saw an accident in the east-bound shoulder where a car apparently hit an icy patch and flipped upside down. There was a first responder standing next to the drivers side, leaning over and apparently talking to the driver. Several more emergency vehicles were approaching. This concerned Mark and he slowed down and became more attentive as to whether the road was beginning to ice up with the shadows lengthening across it.
The sun was beginning to sink below the mountains when I captured this pink glow.
Orange sunset
Missoula taillights
At a stoplight, you can see fatigue on Mark’s face, and curiosity on Tucson’s!
Tucson inside her cone of shame
We had thought this morning that we would press on to Spokane to make up for lost time, but then we realized we’d be going through some more mountains in the dark and suddenly, Missoula sounded like a very good place to spend the night. We may not make it to Oregon tomorrow, but we’ll be close. We are just praising the Lord for keeping us safe another day. (Mark did a good job too!)