Author: Steve

A warm day yesterday. A blue-sky morning today, then it snowed for the
remainder. It’s going to be an interesting challenge driving this rig out
of the forest campground we’re in. It’s a pretty forest campground, but the
undulating access roads are narrow in between the trees and covered with
fresh snow. I don’t think the fresh snow will be a traction problem, but
there is one short, steep, north facing, heavily snowpacked slippery section
that concerns me. We’ll talk that one through a few more times before we
attempt it. Life on the road.

Wow! Blue sky, moderate wind, and no degrees when we got up this morning.
Zero. None. Nada. Not a single Fahrenheit to be found. From inside, we
couldn’t tell. No ice on the windows. No cold air on our heads. The
furnace runs a lot. The inside of the windshield, behind the drapes, has
ice on it. But zero outside? This was the kind of weather that drove us
out of the Bounder. It was unacceptably cold and drafty in the Bounder at
zero, cold air falling on our heads, anything touching the walls wet with
condensation. That was zero and calm. This was zero, with gale force winds
rocking the rig. Engine block heater on for the night, the motor starts right up. Defroster
on the windshield, unhook the electric, run the slides in and out a few
times to clear the snow and ice off them, bang on the retractor with a mop
handle while Judy runs one of the bedroom slides in and out a couple more
times until the frozen retractor breaks free, and the slide awning rolls up
like it’s supposed to. The first hundred miles were a challenge. Snow
pack, slick, and windy. Mostly trucks on Interstate 80, the occasional car,
but mostly trucks. We picked a medium speed one and stuck with it, passing
slower ones, while the faster ones blew by. We were out of the dangerous
conditions by Cheyenne. No more snow pack, just wind. Another hundred
fifty miles south and we were in Woodland Park by dark. Tonight’s forecast, a balmy ten degrees.

Weather update for Rawlins, Wyoming: high winds diminishing overnight, snow
ending, clear and very cold tomorrow morning. Sounds like traveling weather
to us.

Now it’s time to clarify. We’re warm and dry inside the motorhome.
Outside, the blizzard has hit. It’s a sideways snowing mess out there,
outside the windows. Wow, did we make a good decision not to move this
morning.

We’re reconsidering our travel plans. It didn’t look that bad here at
Rawlins last night, but Interstate 80 east of here was closed all night
because of snow and high winds. The Interstate is open this morning, but
road conditions are snowing, slick, and high winds. We’re going to stay
here, warm and dry until conditions improve.