ADVENTURE THRESHOLD

It is safe to say that my adventure threshold is not the same as Craig's. Once again, with a 12 am wake up call Saturday morning, we took off hoping to stay ahead of the storm. In the darkness, on a secondary highway, the roads where snow and ice covered. Craig took this as a challenge, I took it as an opportunity to shut my eyes in an attempt to hide my head in the sand, and hope it would be over when I opened my eyes again. No such luck.

One of the wise things we did do though, was make the decision, once we got on Interstate 15, to stay on it to Interstate 90, instead of taking secondary highways on our way to Billings, MT. It did add a few extra miles, but those where without a doubt less stressful miles than if we had taken the other routing.
I was keeping a watchful eye on the developing storm as we steadily moved in a northeast direction. Once we got into Montana, the roads actually cleared up nicely, but what replaced it was the wind, oh.....and a herd of cattle that was loose on the Interstate. We got ample warning from the drivers on the CB to be on the lookout. We neared the area and watched as one lone fellow tried to get one very feisty cow off the roadway before it became tomorrow's six dollar burger at Carl's Jr. And just when we were getting confident that we would have no further problems, we see the flashing road sign stating that the Interstate was closed up ahead due to high winds. We debated on whether to find a place to hunker down for the rest of the evening until we gained driving hours to make the delivery, but thankfully decided to press on. I can not begin to describe to you the mess the town of Livingston was in with all traffic being diverted onto their city streets. To add to it, there was an accident where traffic was finally allowed back onto the Interstate, and emergency crews were trying to get there on a two lane road with both lanes blocked by traffic. Now add 40 MPH winds and blowing snow to that mix, and I would have to say that was the longest 7 mile detour I have ever taken. Especially, when we were stuck on the overpass to get rerouted onto the Interstate, with the high winds, and our trailer with only 1900 pounds on it. You can bet I was saying some prayers! That was all I needed to experience to know that I would never want to be around a hurricane.
Safely back on the road, the winds were blocked somewhat by the mountains and we limped our way into a very small truck stop in Big Timber, MT to try and get some sleep before, yes, you guessed it, yet one more 12am wake up call. We had just 80 miles to go, but with our truck and trailer still rocking and rolling from the wind outside, we didn't know what to expect, and wanted to get an early start just in case.

I am happy to report that it is now 5:30am and we are backed into the dock and getting the lettuce unloaded. There is a brand new Pilot Truck Stop in Billings, MT that is calling our name and which will be our home for the remainder of the day. Craig is pretty much out of driving hours and we can't imagine getting a dispatch until Monday morning which suits us just fine. I can't say that I'm looking forward to traveling back to the west coast on some of those same roads and with yet another storm headed our way, but with enough exposure, maybe my threshold of adventure just might make it closer to Craig's. Nope......that'll never happen.