Push for Home - 2 Days

After a delicious dinner at Teds downtown Bozeman, nightcap and bed before 10 a.m., the night was filled with wake up for both of us.  Mostly aches, headache, stuffy nose and just anxious about the day ahead.
Trip Record



15 degree start with blowing snow.  70 hours of drive time and over 3k miles with 1,200 to get home.  We quickly packed and hit the road by 5:30 a.m.

We grabbed coffee at Starbucks in Bozeman and got on 90 east to Billings.  Drake took first shift and had to deal with whiteout conditions especially with truck blow back.  Drifting in left lane just complicates the drive.

At 6:45 a.m. the sunrise started to show itself.

The undercarriage was constantly covered in ice

Drake started in the dark and Jeff finished in the dark

Weather just slowed us down too much to make it home

15 plus hours of snowy driving and around 10:40 Omaha, Hilton Garden Inn was our resting place.  No slowing either of us to bed and sleep.  What a grinding day of snow, bad drivers and trucks.  Whew.

Friday morning a 7:00 a.m. wake up and after grabbing Drake's coat, Jeff sat down for a Hilton Garden Inn breakfast.  Drake opted for coffee versus a loaded omelet.  Later he did get a breakfast burrito.

Omelet with everything

After gas stop we started the trek to Drakes.  Drake took some work calls and cleaned up email and while snowy that morning and a dozen or so cars in the ditch around St. Joe, it was easy driving.  Only one more stop for a quick break and then to Drake's.  Quick unload and turn to Lake Lotawana to finish the adventure.  Unpack and start of Laundry, clean the truck and shower.  Home sweet home.

89 plus hours and 4.2k plus miles

Clean and resting

Drake and I agreed this was a trip well worth all the driving.  So many beautiful things to see, family, meeting variety of strangers, wild life, mountains, skiing, and so much more.  One for the books!!!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

T-Minus and Counting to departure

Image
Today marks the less than 48 hour window for departure. Drake has a 4 week sabbatical he earned through 7+ years of tenure with Cerner (Oracle). He approached me over 9 months ago with the proposition to do a 4 ski trip. I was in being retired, but then as we started to discuss realized that's a long time for the overall family. We also after our initial mapping of the various mountains determined that any CA ski resorts were outside the realm of reality. So the trip narrowed a week and several mountains to end in our current itinerary. Kansas City to Taos, NM - Telluride, CO - Salt Lake City, UT (Snowbird, Alta, Deer Valley, Park City) - Jackson Hole, WY - Big Sky, MT - and then Summit County for Keystone and Copper. We had Sun Valley, ID in the mix, but with poor conditions and president day pass issues, we opted to change things up and drop that location. We were able to cancel our VRBO and only lost a $90 deposit with 12 hours to spare. Yesterday, I picked u
Read more

Travel Day - Taos to Cortez

Image
Good night sleep!!  A partly cloudy day ahead for our Travel Day to Cortez, CO where we plan to base for Telluride.  After a quick discussion we opted to skip the morning ski option for the ability to do some scenic driving.  A couple of observations a out Taos.  Very rustic and in many ways like a border town on the mexican side.  The economy must be tough.  The Hampton was ok, but really run down.  Would not stay there again.  Maybe by the mountain as some newer places were available. Why Cortez you may ask for this next leg of the trip.  The cost to stay local in Telluride was over the top so opted to suffer the extra drive time each day.  The plan is after or second day of skiing we will head to Grand Junction instead of Cortez.  The next travel day is to Salt Lake City to meet up with the family members joining us. The drive was an awesome trek with only one spill for Jeff.  The cap to the protein drink dribbled down the front of a white shirt.  No brain farts, but some strategic
Read more

Trip to Taos

Image
January 28th is here and with a 4:45 am wake up the trip begins.  Jeff headed out at 6 am to pick up Drake with Janie following.   Sarah strained her back yesterday, so grandma helping by taking Parker for the day and sleep over.  Upon arrival the last packing of Drake's gear and then on the road 6:55 am departure. Starting mileage was 50,170 First pit stop for food and mother nature in Emporia. Drake worked up to the Chiefs game start.  Between radio and Drakes laptop we were able to keep up with the game until the last few mins when we lost coverage. The drive overall was a refreshing change from I70.  After crossing I25 the foothills took over and the drive became a windy mountain drive. Came across several deer in the road and safely got by. Chiefs victory!!!! Taos is a big desert valley with a great skyline and we had the sunset on top.  Check into Hampton (a little tired, but suffices).   Then a Walmart t
Read more