Land of Snow-Covered Mountains

Looking across the road from our motel parking lot.

 In coming out of the motel this morning the first thing that I noticed were the range of snow-covered mountains just to the south.  Hadn't noticed them when we arrived the previous night because it was already dark.  Throughout the day today we always had snow-covered mountains either in front of us, or to the right or left side.   Late this afternoon, as we were entering Idaho, I thought that we had left the snow, but there was more to be seen.  This last area the mountains were even closer to us and the snow was down in the tree areas, not up on the rocky tops of the mountains.

A couple of mountain views from the road.

It was unusually warm here yesterday and the beginning of today - in the high 80s.  Because of this, the snow that is up there is melting even faster.  This past winter they had unusually heavy snowfalls, so they have already had a problem with flooding when the snows first started to melt.  The rivers were all very high, but we only saw a few places where they were flooding over their banks.

It is easy to tell that we are "not in West Virginia any more".   The speed limit is 75 and, at least until we were up in the mountains, the roads are flat and straight.  It is easy to follow along with the flow of the traffic (when there is any) and find yourself going up to 80.  The distances are far apart - you go for miles without any "services" such as gas or rest areas (bathrooms).  Which means that you have to plan ahead.  With the flat prairie lands, the winds (and along with the winds, the duststorms) and you have signs along the roads warning when it is an area of gusty crosswinds and they even have a windsock up so you can tell the direction of the winds.  I was driving when we experienced some of those gusty winds this afternoon.  There are signs telling you of the areas to parking on "chain on" and chain removal" areas before and after the passes.  There are signs telling you that chains are mandatory when the lights are flashing.    Then there are always the signs warning that the interstate road is closed when the lights are flashing and gates that come down (like railroad crossing gates) that close off the road.

But, like West Virginia, there are construction zones everywhere.  They typically have one lane blocked off, or send you over to the other side and you have the on-coming traffic.  The work zones seem to go on for miles.

A sight we saw often.

The railroad tracks have followed the Interstate for the last few days and the trains are constant and very long (70+ cars with 2-3 engines).  Before we got to northern Wyoming (northern corner by Devils Tower) the trains were all coal cars.  Gillette had a huge open pit (strip / mountain top removal).  Dad said that the seams of coal there could be up to 100 feet thick.  As we have come across Montana, now the trains are either tank cars (lots of refineries and oil wells visible) or they are the large truck containers.  Saw some that were Schneider containers.

Along the Platte River; there is a train on the track just across the river with coal cars,stretching all the way across the picture

We ate our picnic lunch in Bozeman, Montana where they not only had a roof over the tables to block the sun, but also walls to block the winds.  We had prairie dogs running in and out of their burrows and chasing each other to provide the entertainment.

Our daily pattern has been to have breakfast in the motel, a picnic lunch in a rest area along the way, and then dinner at a restaurant after we check in to the motel for the night.  We ate at a Perkins tonight and enjoyed strawberry pie for dessert.  The cooler has been keeping things amazingly cool.  Most all of the motels have had refrigerators, so we can freeze the water bottles each night.  And these water bottles, along with a zip lock bag of ice, have kept everything nice and cold.

All of the motels, so far, have had internet access, so we can create this blog and also make our motel reservations at least one night ahead of time.  This morning we successfully tried out adding pictures to previous entries, so you might want to go back to earlier sections.

We have switched in to the Pacific Time Zone this evening and we are in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho which is in the northern part of Idaho and just across the border from Spokane, Washington.  There is a huge lake (Lake Coeur D'Alene) and tomorrow we are going to take it easy - limited driving and sitting on the beach and taking a boat cruise on the lake.  Want to charge up our energy so that we are ready for the wedding this weekend.

Glad to see that someone is reading this;  saw that there are at least three followers (Xander, Michael, and Brian)   But, if nothing else, this will help me to remember what we did on the trip.