19 - 31 March 2019
After an early dinner in Prescott I finally made it back to the valley. We started to make final preparations to head back east again. We had only planned on being gone two or three weeks, and we were approaching the high end of that range already. One of the last things on my list was to finally straighten out Heather's insurance with my dentist.
I went into their office with the laptop so I could show them various forms and answer their questions in real time. We finally got the dentist and Heather's insurance on the same page, so I tried to schedule a checkup for appointment day, which everyone knows is the Monday before Thanksgiving. They said hmm, we have a cancellation, what about this Thursday? That could work!
This was my first dentist appointment in 18 months, where I had being going every four. I didn't win the teeth lottery like Heather, but with that schedule I had been pretty good for years. Two hours before my appointment I'm brushing my teeth and a filling falls out. I went in for my appointment and they took a look and a zillion xrays. Suddenly we had another change in plans, with a flurry of last minute appointments around cancellations and other small windows in their schedule. We went to Chris's for a couple days, then back for the first crown on Monday.
We were on our way back to the valley on I10 and stopped at the McDs in Lordsburg as we commonly do. As we got back on the interstate heading west the traffic almost immediately slowed, then stopped. We crept up to the next exit and I decided to get off, bypassing Tucson for the Globe route. As we drove away we could see the line of cars and trucks pointed toward a fire in the distance. Later we found out there was a wreck several miles ahead, two semis and pickup. Two folks were airlifted out, including one teenage boy, three dead. Give those semis lots of room. They can take almost twice as far to stop as a car, and may weigh in at 40 tons. On the boat they call it the law of gross tonnage. It doesn't matter if you have the right of way; you're going to lose.
They did one crown and a double gum scrape session on half my mouth in one afternoon. It was just as fun as it sounds. The second crown was scheduled for Friday, with them trying to fit in two more gum scrape sessions during the week. I finally got one on Thursday, and another just before my second crown on Friday.
I was successful with those appointments even if they weren't fun, but the last quadrant gum scrape was just before my second crown, which was supposed to be on a wisdom tooth. Suddenly there were lots of hmming and offline conversations. As it turns out, on top of the crack in the wisdom tooth (which they thought was manageable) the number of fillings on that wisdom tooth had somewhat hidden the extent of damage. More importantly where, which was down at and proceeding slightly under the gumline at the very back of the tooth, right up against my jaw. The dentist now advised just pulling the wisdom tooth, but the oral surgeon didn't rotate through until early the next week. I got an appointment for the following Tuesday.
Back to LC we go for a quick weekend. I got the oil changed, since we had somehow put on over 8,000 miles since Xmas, and we actually got to the gym.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
The adventures of Dan and Heather as they travel on their sailboat, "Hiatus".
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
From Provo to Prescott in Only Three Days
16 - 19 March 2019
When I exited the Provo hotel on Saturday I finally noticed across the street was a McDonalds with a world class view. After some coffee and such I headed south. I didn't really make it that far, with just making check out time and moving like I was underwater, but it was progress.
I stopped in St. George and went to the In-and-Out Burger, which was stacked with folks. In-and-Out really does have the best burger at that price point. In watching people it was clear that many of the folks had the same kind of small town characteristics I was used to growing up in Prescott, clothing, speech, pace and such. I know how some folks feels about Mormons, but they do know how to run a town with all the appearances of wholesomeness. This would be contrasted with my experience the next day.
I checked into a hotel in St George with my now trusty electric blanket and enough OJ and rum to continue my medical treatment. I guess I travel now in the winter with an electric blanket. The next morning I grabbed some breakfast at an Einsteins Bagel. It was an interesting subset of the St. George population, that being folks not at church on a Sunday morning, having breakfast out at one of the few places open on said Sunday morning. Still pretty wholesome looking, although the percentage of folks with tattoos and piercings shot up a bit.
Fortified with some excellent coffee (with honey!) I was back on the road, hours earlier than the day before. The station I gassed up at in StG had a pretty good view as well.
As I was driving into the northern outskirts of Las Vegas maybe they were having some sort of airshow. I saw a couple of jets, one with a classic delta wing and a canard. The other one I only saw nose on, but both hauling ass at a pretty low altitude.
I felt okay still so I kept going. In fact, I was so much better that I finally noticed that I didn't have my seat cushion. I must have removed it while I was provisioning for the hotel stay, getting in and out to the car a lot, and had not noticed its absence until now. But now I definitely missed it. I must be getting better!
There was some sort of wreck south of Vegas approaching the I40. There was a several mile long backup. Once I got to the northern edge of Kingman I took a long cut over the hills the back way into town.
I needed some more OJ to continue my treatment and the entire town seemed to be anchored by the Walmart. Kingman had a noticeably different feel from the day before in StG. I went in, and as I was searching the aisles I saw some poor soul, maybe late 20s or early 30s. He had a full set of very unfortunate neck and facial tattoos, being herded along by I'm assuming his mother. These were two of the saddest people I had seen in a long time, just trying to get through their day.
The next day I stopped in Prescott to have an early supper with my mother, and reminisce about Elisabeth, four days later than I had planned.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
When I exited the Provo hotel on Saturday I finally noticed across the street was a McDonalds with a world class view. After some coffee and such I headed south. I didn't really make it that far, with just making check out time and moving like I was underwater, but it was progress.
I stopped in St. George and went to the In-and-Out Burger, which was stacked with folks. In-and-Out really does have the best burger at that price point. In watching people it was clear that many of the folks had the same kind of small town characteristics I was used to growing up in Prescott, clothing, speech, pace and such. I know how some folks feels about Mormons, but they do know how to run a town with all the appearances of wholesomeness. This would be contrasted with my experience the next day.
I checked into a hotel in St George with my now trusty electric blanket and enough OJ and rum to continue my medical treatment. I guess I travel now in the winter with an electric blanket. The next morning I grabbed some breakfast at an Einsteins Bagel. It was an interesting subset of the St. George population, that being folks not at church on a Sunday morning, having breakfast out at one of the few places open on said Sunday morning. Still pretty wholesome looking, although the percentage of folks with tattoos and piercings shot up a bit.
Fortified with some excellent coffee (with honey!) I was back on the road, hours earlier than the day before. The station I gassed up at in StG had a pretty good view as well.
As I was driving into the northern outskirts of Las Vegas maybe they were having some sort of airshow. I saw a couple of jets, one with a classic delta wing and a canard. The other one I only saw nose on, but both hauling ass at a pretty low altitude.
I felt okay still so I kept going. In fact, I was so much better that I finally noticed that I didn't have my seat cushion. I must have removed it while I was provisioning for the hotel stay, getting in and out to the car a lot, and had not noticed its absence until now. But now I definitely missed it. I must be getting better!
There was some sort of wreck south of Vegas approaching the I40. There was a several mile long backup. Once I got to the northern edge of Kingman I took a long cut over the hills the back way into town.
I needed some more OJ to continue my treatment and the entire town seemed to be anchored by the Walmart. Kingman had a noticeably different feel from the day before in StG. I went in, and as I was searching the aisles I saw some poor soul, maybe late 20s or early 30s. He had a full set of very unfortunate neck and facial tattoos, being herded along by I'm assuming his mother. These were two of the saddest people I had seen in a long time, just trying to get through their day.
The next day I stopped in Prescott to have an early supper with my mother, and reminisce about Elisabeth, four days later than I had planned.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Friday, April 26, 2019
Who's the Sickie?
14 - 16 March 2019
Well, the meetings on Thursday went well. The sections I had written were well received, even with a good number of changes, most of which made them better. I'm looking to what might be next in this effort.
I had originally planned to leave Salt Lake Thursday afternoon after the last admin meeting and get to Vegas early evening. It took a few days longer.
Once I finished the last meeting I chatted with some folks from work for a few minutes, then grabbed a lunch and snuck into the closing administrative meeting a bit late. I was kind of coming down from the meeting, and felt a little woozy, but still not that bad. After a quick informal meeting I packed up my stuff, even taking a picture of town on my way to the car.
I had come down from the meeting, but then I just kept dropping. I hadn't had much to eat and thought that might help, although I really didn't feel like eating. There was a Corner Bakery down the street, and I got some soup and half a sandwich. I finished the soup but only picked at the sandwich. Me without an appetite is definitely a warning sign.
By the time I got back into the car I knew I was in trouble. I slowly pulled out of my space, crossed the parking lot, and entered the street, but it almost immediately had a very busy intersection. I stopped abruptly just as some cars went whizzing by at more than 50 mph. I really wasn't feeling well.
I finally turned right behind a slow moving bus, and I just stayed behind it for a couple miles until I got my bearings. I could tell now I was going down hard with something in my lungs. I usually had the cold first. After having pneumonia four winters out of five I had recognized the pattern where I got to the point where I could not heat myself back up, no matter how many blankets were piled on me. At that point I had three choices, antibiotics, the emergency room, or if I caught it soon enough, an electric blanket.
At my second Target with no electric blankets (out of season? there's snow on the ground!), a helpful girl suggested Walmart and that it was also online. As we were walking away she offhandedly suggested Bed, Bath and Beyond. I checked from the car and there apparently wasn't an electric blanket at a Walmart for 100 miles. At least that saved me a few trips, and I didn't have many more in me. I then checked BB&B online and there were some at a store just a few miles away.
Once I found the electric blankets I understood why they still had some. Even on sale they were at least twice as much as they should be. By that point I didn't care, and seriously considered buying a second one. I then provisioned for an extended stay at a hotel, including a full pizza. I hate being sick when traveling, but some ways are better than others.
Heading to the Provo hotel I saw an Apache flying north, a couple thousand feet up. Or maybe not, I was pretty punchy by then.
I spent two nights at the hotel in Provo, never leaving the room. The day in between is just a blur of sleep, cable tv, Netflix, and OJ fortified with medicinal rum. I do recall I watched an embarrassing amount of Ridiculousness. I drank about 2 gal of OJ, but only had a couple peanut butter cups to eat on Friday. Just couldn't stand the thought of eating, despite all the provisions I had gathered. Every time I went to the bathroom I turned on the shower to try and steam out some of the gunk in my lungs.
By the second morning I still didn't feel anywhere near good, but I felt a little better, and that was enough to make it at least a couple hours down the road, closer to Prescott.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Well, the meetings on Thursday went well. The sections I had written were well received, even with a good number of changes, most of which made them better. I'm looking to what might be next in this effort.
I had originally planned to leave Salt Lake Thursday afternoon after the last admin meeting and get to Vegas early evening. It took a few days longer.
Once I finished the last meeting I chatted with some folks from work for a few minutes, then grabbed a lunch and snuck into the closing administrative meeting a bit late. I was kind of coming down from the meeting, and felt a little woozy, but still not that bad. After a quick informal meeting I packed up my stuff, even taking a picture of town on my way to the car.
I had come down from the meeting, but then I just kept dropping. I hadn't had much to eat and thought that might help, although I really didn't feel like eating. There was a Corner Bakery down the street, and I got some soup and half a sandwich. I finished the soup but only picked at the sandwich. Me without an appetite is definitely a warning sign.
By the time I got back into the car I knew I was in trouble. I slowly pulled out of my space, crossed the parking lot, and entered the street, but it almost immediately had a very busy intersection. I stopped abruptly just as some cars went whizzing by at more than 50 mph. I really wasn't feeling well.
I finally turned right behind a slow moving bus, and I just stayed behind it for a couple miles until I got my bearings. I could tell now I was going down hard with something in my lungs. I usually had the cold first. After having pneumonia four winters out of five I had recognized the pattern where I got to the point where I could not heat myself back up, no matter how many blankets were piled on me. At that point I had three choices, antibiotics, the emergency room, or if I caught it soon enough, an electric blanket.
At my second Target with no electric blankets (out of season? there's snow on the ground!), a helpful girl suggested Walmart and that it was also online. As we were walking away she offhandedly suggested Bed, Bath and Beyond. I checked from the car and there apparently wasn't an electric blanket at a Walmart for 100 miles. At least that saved me a few trips, and I didn't have many more in me. I then checked BB&B online and there were some at a store just a few miles away.
Once I found the electric blankets I understood why they still had some. Even on sale they were at least twice as much as they should be. By that point I didn't care, and seriously considered buying a second one. I then provisioned for an extended stay at a hotel, including a full pizza. I hate being sick when traveling, but some ways are better than others.
Heading to the Provo hotel I saw an Apache flying north, a couple thousand feet up. Or maybe not, I was pretty punchy by then.
I spent two nights at the hotel in Provo, never leaving the room. The day in between is just a blur of sleep, cable tv, Netflix, and OJ fortified with medicinal rum. I do recall I watched an embarrassing amount of Ridiculousness. I drank about 2 gal of OJ, but only had a couple peanut butter cups to eat on Friday. Just couldn't stand the thought of eating, despite all the provisions I had gathered. Every time I went to the bathroom I turned on the shower to try and steam out some of the gunk in my lungs.
By the second morning I still didn't feel anywhere near good, but I felt a little better, and that was enough to make it at least a couple hours down the road, closer to Prescott.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Thursday, April 25, 2019
GM
13 March 2019
Perhaps sitting in the car for a few hours at a time, and driving some of it, was not the physical accomplishment it felt like at the time, given where I had been just weeks before. In my head I was 90-95% better. In reality, I must have been closer to 60-70%, with few reserves. In addition, I was not used to working that hard on that little sleep. If Heather and I have three days in a row like that on the boat, we just stop wherever we are.
I think I first noticed getting sick with a little cough on Wednesday night at dinner at the Red Iguana. That night back at my hotel I got the call I had been dreading. My grandmother had not been doing well, and the day after the meeting I was going to stop in Prescott on my way back to Phoenix. I didn't make it. She passed while I was at dinner.
Her public life is being celebrated, and rightly so. She did many great things in historic preservation, libraries, and a hundred other Prescott, Arizona state, and even national efforts, some just weeks before she passed. She lived so long that some of the buildings and such she had help expand or to be restored needed some more of the same again decades later. But what I remember her for most is she and my grandfather taking in an angry, scared junior high kid, back when they were roughly my age now. I lived with them through graduating high school, and to their thinly veiled distress, the rest of the year after graduation. I worked at the golden arches during the week, so I could drive up to Flagstaff on weekends to be with my girlfriend, who at least had the sense to sign up for college after high school.
They gave me several critical nudges in the right direction, or at least better directions, and more than once a little bit of support just when I needed it most to pursue a better life. They taught me that there were different ways to proceed in life, to be honest not always better ones, but just knowing that different ones were an option, and that I had some level of control over that was enough most of the time.
Back in my hotel room I cried for a while, then turned out the lights to go to sleep, determined to make it through the meetings the next day. I made it, but just barely.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Perhaps sitting in the car for a few hours at a time, and driving some of it, was not the physical accomplishment it felt like at the time, given where I had been just weeks before. In my head I was 90-95% better. In reality, I must have been closer to 60-70%, with few reserves. In addition, I was not used to working that hard on that little sleep. If Heather and I have three days in a row like that on the boat, we just stop wherever we are.
I think I first noticed getting sick with a little cough on Wednesday night at dinner at the Red Iguana. That night back at my hotel I got the call I had been dreading. My grandmother had not been doing well, and the day after the meeting I was going to stop in Prescott on my way back to Phoenix. I didn't make it. She passed while I was at dinner.
Her public life is being celebrated, and rightly so. She did many great things in historic preservation, libraries, and a hundred other Prescott, Arizona state, and even national efforts, some just weeks before she passed. She lived so long that some of the buildings and such she had help expand or to be restored needed some more of the same again decades later. But what I remember her for most is she and my grandfather taking in an angry, scared junior high kid, back when they were roughly my age now. I lived with them through graduating high school, and to their thinly veiled distress, the rest of the year after graduation. I worked at the golden arches during the week, so I could drive up to Flagstaff on weekends to be with my girlfriend, who at least had the sense to sign up for college after high school.
They gave me several critical nudges in the right direction, or at least better directions, and more than once a little bit of support just when I needed it most to pursue a better life. They taught me that there were different ways to proceed in life, to be honest not always better ones, but just knowing that different ones were an option, and that I had some level of control over that was enough most of the time.
Back in my hotel room I cried for a while, then turned out the lights to go to sleep, determined to make it through the meetings the next day. I made it, but just barely.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Meetings
11 -13 March 2019
In the morning I made my way to the University Guest House for our working meeting on bonding, then the exec meeting later that afternoon. I had dinner at Wasach Sugarhouse brew pub with a few folks from the meeting. It was good to see these people again.
On my way to the meeting Tuesday morning there was a dead deer in the middle of Foothills Drive. Maybe an omen. We started the more formal meetings on Tuesday, and a big group of us had dinner at Stanza, a very nice but not stuffy Italian place. It started snowing that night.
Wednesday going in was a little sloppy. When I pasted the picture below I noticed that I seem to be following the guy in front of me a little close for conditions. What you can't see is we are both stopped at a light.
Wednesday meetings went well, and I even banged out a few pages on heat surveys and such, but I was getting tired of the long days and nights.
A good friend from the meetings named Margaret, that I've known for more than a couple decades, had spent the previous Sunday night with her husband at Sundance. In talking about their connections to Sundance, and mine (well Heather's), we started crossing over with our stories. So it turns out that Margaret's husband's ex-girfriend's sister is the very Heather we had stayed with last year at Sundance, and my Heather's namesake. I think I got that right this time. Small world.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
In the morning I made my way to the University Guest House for our working meeting on bonding, then the exec meeting later that afternoon. I had dinner at Wasach Sugarhouse brew pub with a few folks from the meeting. It was good to see these people again.
On my way to the meeting Tuesday morning there was a dead deer in the middle of Foothills Drive. Maybe an omen. We started the more formal meetings on Tuesday, and a big group of us had dinner at Stanza, a very nice but not stuffy Italian place. It started snowing that night.
Wednesday meetings went well, and I even banged out a few pages on heat surveys and such, but I was getting tired of the long days and nights.
A good friend from the meetings named Margaret, that I've known for more than a couple decades, had spent the previous Sunday night with her husband at Sundance. In talking about their connections to Sundance, and mine (well Heather's), we started crossing over with our stories. So it turns out that Margaret's husband's ex-girfriend's sister is the very Heather we had stayed with last year at Sundance, and my Heather's namesake. I think I got that right this time. Small world.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Finally to the Promised Land, the Great Salt Lake
10 March 2019
Sunday morning we packed up and I drove Heather to the airport so she could catch her appointments in Phoenix. Afterwards I had a full day planned. First breakfast at Penny Ann's, then driving all over SL trying to get my headlight fixed, on a Sunday, in SLUT. Finally at the Pep Boys south of town a guy named Mark helped me out. Apparently he had worked 30 years in Hollywood on lighting and such, and he set me up in minutes. We didn't talk quite long enough to find out how he had ended up here.
I did a triple load of laundry at the neighborhood laundromat then hit Scheels. I was unfamiliar with this store but you can't miss it along the interstate. It's kind of an REI crossed with a Bass Pro/Cabelas, but employee owned. I like that, so I got some overpriced pants (tactical pockets!).
Down the road was a Costco so I had the tires topped up, filled the tank, and got another six pack of Mobil1 to feed the beast. The only alcohol I could buy on a Sunday in SLUT was beer with alcohol content less than 4%, so that's what I got. Even got a car wash to start rinsing off a few thousand miles of road grime. I had had designs on a pizza for dinner, but The Habit burger place across from Scheels smelled so good I couldn't resist. Then I was off to check into my new, and since I was now by myself, cheaper hotel.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Sunday morning we packed up and I drove Heather to the airport so she could catch her appointments in Phoenix. Afterwards I had a full day planned. First breakfast at Penny Ann's, then driving all over SL trying to get my headlight fixed, on a Sunday, in SLUT. Finally at the Pep Boys south of town a guy named Mark helped me out. Apparently he had worked 30 years in Hollywood on lighting and such, and he set me up in minutes. We didn't talk quite long enough to find out how he had ended up here.
I did a triple load of laundry at the neighborhood laundromat then hit Scheels. I was unfamiliar with this store but you can't miss it along the interstate. It's kind of an REI crossed with a Bass Pro/Cabelas, but employee owned. I like that, so I got some overpriced pants (tactical pockets!).
Down the road was a Costco so I had the tires topped up, filled the tank, and got another six pack of Mobil1 to feed the beast. The only alcohol I could buy on a Sunday in SLUT was beer with alcohol content less than 4%, so that's what I got. Even got a car wash to start rinsing off a few thousand miles of road grime. I had had designs on a pizza for dinner, but The Habit burger place across from Scheels smelled so good I couldn't resist. Then I was off to check into my new, and since I was now by myself, cheaper hotel.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Monday, April 22, 2019
So Blowing Snow Really is a Road Hazard Thing
08 - 09 March 2019
In Manhattan we had breakfast at the Chef, then started on through the big empty towards Denver. Just west of Manhattan there was still some contour. We saw some of the largest flocks of birds I've ever seen, and big ones, Canada geese, but also large white birds of some flavor (mmmm, birds). As we head farther west it flattens out and the most common creature we see are these large hawks, tan and brown, with a white chest. Beautiful.
There is something about west Kansas and the eastern Colorado high plains that puts Heather and I to sleep, sort of like west Texas. Nonetheless, we made good time, and made it to Ft. Collins north of Denver by dark. We had dinner at the 415 Restaurant downtown and it was excellent.
In the morning I'd planned to head back downtown for some highly rated breakfast place, but it was cold and windy and Heather wasn't feeling great, so we decided to just go to a place across the parking lot from the hotel. It turned out to be an Original Pancake House, which is kind of a weird name for a chain. It was busy but Heather's omelet was very good.
So I had wanted to take the I70 again, this time with more snow in the Rockies, but a wet snow on a huge base of powder was causing there to be avalanches everywhere around Aspen, so nope. Next we tried to take a state route along the foothills to Laramie, bypassing Cheyenne on our way to the I80, but it closed right in front of us. This confused us because the sun was shining, it was sort of warm (in the 40s, same as the day before) and the roads were dry. Hmmm. Such simple desert folk.
Well, we turned around and made our way to the I25 N to Cheyenne. Just outside town I saw a sign saying that I80 was closed, but I couldn't believe it. Yup, it was, so we started down a state route that looked like it winded around, getting us close to Laramie, but when we headed down it, we saw sign saying closed in 22 miles. After checking online as best we could, we decided to proceed down the state route, half expecting to turn around. We didn't have anything else to do.
The first 15 miles or so was clear and dry, although very blustery as the weather forecast had stated. But then we started going up into some little foothills, which had more snow, and seemed to channel the wind between them. There was snow blowing across the road, which at first doesn't seem like that big a deal. But then cars drive on it, the snow melts some, then refreezes, catching even more snow. That and no visibility. Yikes. But notice the blue skies above.
Finally we got to I80, which was closed right there heading east, but we were going the other way. There were a few more patches of blowing snow and slush and ice on the interstate heading west from there, but nothing like before.
We had dinner at the original Little America in Wyoming. As we parked Heather noted we had one headlight out. After a respectable dinner at a roadside in the middle of nowhere, and some zigs and zags from the GPS, we finally made to to Salt Lake well after dark on one headlight.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
In Manhattan we had breakfast at the Chef, then started on through the big empty towards Denver. Just west of Manhattan there was still some contour. We saw some of the largest flocks of birds I've ever seen, and big ones, Canada geese, but also large white birds of some flavor (mmmm, birds). As we head farther west it flattens out and the most common creature we see are these large hawks, tan and brown, with a white chest. Beautiful.
There is something about west Kansas and the eastern Colorado high plains that puts Heather and I to sleep, sort of like west Texas. Nonetheless, we made good time, and made it to Ft. Collins north of Denver by dark. We had dinner at the 415 Restaurant downtown and it was excellent.
In the morning I'd planned to head back downtown for some highly rated breakfast place, but it was cold and windy and Heather wasn't feeling great, so we decided to just go to a place across the parking lot from the hotel. It turned out to be an Original Pancake House, which is kind of a weird name for a chain. It was busy but Heather's omelet was very good.
So I had wanted to take the I70 again, this time with more snow in the Rockies, but a wet snow on a huge base of powder was causing there to be avalanches everywhere around Aspen, so nope. Next we tried to take a state route along the foothills to Laramie, bypassing Cheyenne on our way to the I80, but it closed right in front of us. This confused us because the sun was shining, it was sort of warm (in the 40s, same as the day before) and the roads were dry. Hmmm. Such simple desert folk.
Well, we turned around and made our way to the I25 N to Cheyenne. Just outside town I saw a sign saying that I80 was closed, but I couldn't believe it. Yup, it was, so we started down a state route that looked like it winded around, getting us close to Laramie, but when we headed down it, we saw sign saying closed in 22 miles. After checking online as best we could, we decided to proceed down the state route, half expecting to turn around. We didn't have anything else to do.
The first 15 miles or so was clear and dry, although very blustery as the weather forecast had stated. But then we started going up into some little foothills, which had more snow, and seemed to channel the wind between them. There was snow blowing across the road, which at first doesn't seem like that big a deal. But then cars drive on it, the snow melts some, then refreezes, catching even more snow. That and no visibility. Yikes. But notice the blue skies above.
Finally we got to I80, which was closed right there heading east, but we were going the other way. There were a few more patches of blowing snow and slush and ice on the interstate heading west from there, but nothing like before.
We had dinner at the original Little America in Wyoming. As we parked Heather noted we had one headlight out. After a respectable dinner at a roadside in the middle of nowhere, and some zigs and zags from the GPS, we finally made to to Salt Lake well after dark on one headlight.
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