On The Road: There and Back Again

 

 On our trip down to Utah in December,we saw a lot of interesting sights and encountered some challenging weather. On the way down through Wyoming, the road was a sheet of ice, and the heavy winds were blowing huge clouds of snow across it, so at times it was hard to tell where the road was, even though it was sunny at the same time!

 

This happens where we live all the time, and is referred to as a "ground blizzard", just as dangerous as a regular blizzard. So that was fun. We did see a beautiful sunset that day!




Ground blizzard in Wyoming



view to the east as the sun set

sun behind the mountains in Wyoming

I love this one!

The second day through Utah was beautiful and sunny. I saw this pastoral scene as we stopped at a rest stop in some small spot I'd never heard of. So pretty. And look: sheep!

 

 

Two weeks later the weather on the way home was much nicer than the journey down- sunny all the way. The only issue was the high winds on the second day. There were a few sections of the highway north from Rawlins where the wind blew the snow so hard it looked like a thick fog; you couldn’t see oncoming traffic until it was right upon you! We passed several semi-trucks that seemed to be having a hard time, and there was one stupid truck –it said it was hauling milk- that was trying to pass other trucks and doing a horrible job of it, almost causing several wrecks. When we reached Casper and saw some ambulances rushing south, we wondered if it had anything to do with that truck we’d seen. We were just glad we weren’t involved!

                Also as we approached the northern most section of the state, we could see a big wall of clouds looming on the horizon. We received a phone call that school would be cancelled on Monday about that time too. We learned later that a huge Arctic cold front, combined with the high winds, would be closing schools and businesses all across the Midwest. Crazy.

 

Finally, here is a short video from our drive south in December. Enjoy!