Tuesday we were up and getting ready to go around 8:00. It was cold and windy outside!!🥶. BRRRR as we were hitchin up the gettyup to go. We weren’t happy that there was wind, but we need to go, and thankfully it wasn’t gale force. Our route was to go up through Salt Lake City to a campground north of Ogden. There’s mountains with snow in between here and there. Salt Lake City is in an extraordinarily beautiful setting at the very foot of some very tall (over 11,000’) mountains. Thankfully the pass doesn’t go that high, but it might get interesting.
Our route was pretty uneventful up to Price, but the road was starting to get wet, we had a bit of wind, and we were getting up into some foggy-clouds. The hills were really pretty with just a dusting of snow.
It got more wintery looking! We couldn’t see the mountains through the clouds.
And then the clouds started to leak out some snow. 😵💫. I kept watching for the summit so that we could start going down hill. We DEFINITELY don’t want to drive this rig in snow!!! It’s bad enough on wet pavement.
Ah! There’s the sign for Soldier Summit. But we were still going up hill, and the wind was blowing snow onto the road, but at least it was in the oncoming east-bound lane, and not ours….at least not yet. 😵💫
OK – whew! There’s the elevation sign for the summit. Elevation 7477. That makes Snoqualmie summit in Washington seems like a baby at just over 3,000. Of course, it starts it’s climb much nearer to sea level on the west side than this one.
Whew! That was the worst of it. We headed downhill and within about 40 miles we were on Interstate 15 headed north. We were going to travel through the 100 mile stretch of Provo/Salt Lake City/Ogden between about 11:30-1:00. Traffic was moving really well and was not congested or heavy, so it was a really good plan! We hit a really rough overpass bridge with potholes that just about threw us into another lane. It was REALLY bad, and I’m thankful Kenny had a good hold on the wheel because we nearly bounced into the big semi-truck next to us! YIKES! It was seriously a dangerous couple of scary seconds!
We made it safely to our destination in Willard at a little RV park. The owners were suuuper nice and friendly. We didn’t even unhook Henry because we were level enough to stay together for an easy get-away in the morning. Kenny hooked up all the utilities, and we just stayed inside the whole time we were here. We were really hungry by the time we arrived, so I fixed grilled cheese samiches and mato soup for lunch. Then we weren’t really overly hungry for dinner, so just had some pancakes. 🤷♀️ Why not.
Tomorrow we’ll continue north into Montana.
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Wednesday we weren’t in a big hurry to peel out. The sun was out and it was a beautiful clear and calm day. We got going around 9:00 or so, to continue our journey. Our destination today was to another small RV park in Dillon Montana. We’ve stayed there before, so we knew it would be easy in and out. I originally had planned to stay at a free campground called Beaverhead on the Clark Canyon Reservoir, but I was afraid it might be snowy or muddy, so I changed plans and made a reservation at the Countryside RV park. By the way, this is what the inside of Nitro looks like when we’re ready to roll. Kawi is criss-cross strapped down to rings in the floor, and the chairs are strapped down up against the wall.
The northern part of Utah was very pretty, with big green fields fresh for Spring, with snow capped mountains watching over them in the not-too-far distance.
As we moved north, the green faded back to winter brown.
We were welcomed into Idaho about an hour later, and it looked quite wintery.
This was cool – we saw some for-real cowboys doing for-real cowboy stuff! They were out rounding up their cows. (Sorry Cooper- they’re COWboys even though these are bovines by your rules. They probably don’t want to be called Bovineboys.)
Oh dude. We saw a couple of snow plows driving along the freeway ahead of us, and we really hoped they weren’t out on a mission to plow!! We saw a grader plowing snow on a frontage road alongside the freeway, so even though the freeway was clear and dry, we kinda wondered what might be up ahead. 🤔 There was snow in the forecast just a couple of days ago up here (why I changed where we planned to stay).
During the drive, I took a look to see what the weather is supposed to be while we’re in Troy at Kenny’s parents place. Is it going to snow? NO! It’s going to be in the upper 70’s! WOO-HOO! Short sleeves get to come back out!
Neither of us ever saw a sign welcoming us into Montana, but I did see this Continental Divide sign which was pretty close to the border. We’re officially on the west side of the U.S.!
We arrived at the Countryside RV Park, and there was nobody in the office. We weren’t surprised – it was the same last time we were here. We already had our slip assignment (oops – that’s boat talk), so we just tootled on and pulled into A-8. It was kind of funny when we saw the “Campground Full” sign out front, and it was mostly empty. There were some rigs that are definitely here for the long run, with their huge propane tanks and boards up all around under their trailers. Who in their right mind would spend the winter in a RV in Montana, for goodness sake? 🤨 We didn’t even unhook Henry. We just went into Nitro and stayed inside the whole time we were here. There was wifi, so we watched a movie and I made pulled pork in the instant pot. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and evening.
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Thursday morning it was windy and cold outside, and the forecast was calling for sustained winds in excess of 20mph this afternoon here. It should get less windy the farther north we go, so we left around 9:00 again. However, my driver still had to really fight the wind, and Henry was getting less than 8mpg. The wind was hitting us flat on the driver’s side for awhile. Kenny can see the bubble level on Nitro in his side mirror, and at one point the bubble was all the way to the driver’s side, which meant that Nitro was really leaning to the passenger side in the wind. 😳🌬️. YIKES! But as we hoped, once we got onto I-90 and headed more westerly, the winds became a little less severe. I saw these big rock walls, and actual evergreen trees. We’re getting back to the Northwest!
These rocks were a bit reminiscent of Utah!
This is a classic Montana view. It is beautiful.
Tonight’s stay is provided by Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, Montana, courtesy of Harvest Host membership. We could have driven all the way to Troy today, but I figured we might need a brewery stay after all of our ‘dry’ camping. 🤭
This was their current menu. Not much for dark beers, so I tried samples of a few things. The Strub (strawberry rhubarb berliner) was VERY rhubarb sour. Nope… not that one. How about the Slow Elk? OH! WAIT! There’s a bourbon barrel aged dark ale Hound Dog. I tried them both, and voted for the BBA Hound Dog. It was pretty good. A little light for my barrel aged preferences, but I had two glasses. ☺️
Their facility is pretty big inside, and they have a great big grassy amphitheater outside for summer concerts.
This was our parking spot, and we were the only rig here for tonight. Kenny had loaded our 100 gallon fresh water tank with 30 gallons while we were at the RV park. He even has the gallon counter to make sure how much he puts in, since our gauges don’t seem to work correctly. Well, perhaps the problem is that the sensor in the tank is set at the 30 gallon level, because the water pump will not pump any water, and acts as if we have no water. Great. At least we’re only here for one night! We always keep a one gallon jug full of water in the bathroom for flushing the toilet, just for crazy days like this. 🤷♀️
I made pizza in the oven, and it turned out PERFECT! The crust was cooked evenly from end to end. That pizza stone (and thermometer) makes all the difference in the world! YUM! I was so stuffed that I took a walk around the property. This made me laugh when I went past the loading dock and all of the kegs ready for shipment. There were a couple that said “BAD”, and even one that said “Weird”. Ha! That’s technical beerology stuff right there.
Tomorrow we’ll be on to Kenny’s parents house for a few days visit, along with our daughter and her family. We’re planning to do some side-by-side riding, so stay tuned for some fun pictures of the crazy triplets on their first rides in their “Saki”!