Soooo I wake up early! Yay. I am ready and over to Chris's before 8. Rowan is getting ready to go to school and the baby is still asleep. I try to be quiet and not wake him. I thank everyone for their awesomeness and say goodbye. Chris gives me some final advice on which way to take out of town and I head off.
I stop at the "Escalante Outfitters" store to get a shirt. This place was cool. It is worth of a shirt. I find one and head on my way. As soon as I get out of town, the roads get pretty snowy. Chris had mentioned that the town is in a sort of "weather bubble". The weather is more mild in town than a few miles out. The further out of town I get, the more snow there is. Well to a point. It never gets too crazy.
It takes forever to really get out of town. I end up stuck behind someone who wants to go 30 mph in the 60 area. Thank you for being careful, but really?!? 30??? I have places to be and over 700 miles to drive today buddy! The lane finally opens for passing on my side and I get around him and continue on at a speed closer to the speed limit. I am able to keep a decent pace for while.
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| Snowy drive through Utah |
After a painfully long time, I finally am allowed to pass. I get around him and make it to the interstate without encountering any more slow people. Well, there is a large truck facing the wrong way in my lane right before the on ramp to the highway. I am not sure what he is doing but the driver is out and waving cars around. I guess he has some sort of business there.
The highway is nice. The snow decreases as I drive. Eventually, there is no more snow but the roads are still wet. Better keep it in 4wd. The speed limit varies from 75 to 80. I hate to drive that fast in 4wd but I would dislike hitting that one icy spot and having my back end swing out, causing a catastrophic loss of control a lot more. I drive down the road, wishing it would just dry off already and hoping that it is not like this the whole way. It then starts precipitating. Is is rain? Snow? Nooo... it is bouncing off the road. It is hail. Awesome. Small hail, but hail never the less. I hope it is not big enough to dent my truck. I slow down to try to prevent any damage. A minute later, it stops. I go through several more hail patches before it stops for good and the roads dry off. Sweet, 2wd and not worrying about ice time!
My plan was to drive from Escalante to a Chic Fil A in Salt Lake City without stopping. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the interstate, I had had coffee and an entire bottle of water and kind of needed to pee. Just over 200 miles to SLC... I can make it! My GPS is saying 3 more hours to my stop... come onnn!!
About 40 miles away, I hit construction and a reduced speed/double fines zone. The signs also announce that the fines may exceed $600. I really can't afford that at the moment.... I slow down to the painfully slow speed of 55. I need to pee sooo badly! The next 15 minutes are spent thinking "I can make it! Nooo, I can't pull off here! I can make it! No, must stop NOW!" I finally realize I am going to have to make two stops anyway. One for food and one for gas. May as well make the gas stop now. 20 miles from Chick Fil A, I give up and pull off.
I pull up to the gas pump, hop out, and swipe my card. (Despite having to pee, I can not stand to be inefficient. I must pee while fueling my truck at the same time!) The pump spends what seems like forever authorizing. Comeeee onnn!! This is to the point of being painful now. Ok finall! Select fuel grade anddd go! I get the pump going and run inside. Ok, much better!
I walk out. Man, my truck is gross. I tell it to stop playing in the dirt and getting filthy. I am pretty sure I said this out loud to it. I kinda hop no one heard. They might think I am crazy or something. I guess I should stop driving my truck through disgusting slushy snow. Oh well, it can't be helped. I will be getting back to Anchorage just in time for a horribly extra long and disgusting breakup after the record snowfall....
I continue the 20 miles to Chick Fil A and get lunch. Ok, this is for sure the last time I am having this for a while. Better enjoy it! I do. I get back on the road and continue on to Helena.
I don't know if it is just my mood today or if people are driving more annoying than normal. I have about had it with drivers! First there were the slow people this morning. Then, there are the people who are slow, and then I pass them, and then they pass me back, get in front of me, and then snow down again. I pass them back and the process repeats. I am using cruise control. I don't know if they just can't stand having someone in front of them or if they are completely unaware of their speed or what. Regardless, between my entrance onto I-15 and just after Salt Lake when the traffic thins out, I run into a lot of people like this. Aragh!
And then there are the people who just cruise in the left lane. I ran into them in the busier parts, stopping people from passing. I think I have ranted about this before so I won't go too far into detail... In the less busy parts, they will get out to pass someone, barely going faster than the person they are passing. They finally get around whomever they are passing and then proceed to cruise in the left lane with no one anywhere near them in the right lane. Get the hell over! The left lane is for fast people! I pass these people in the right lane.
Last, there are the semis. Semis are great. They do a wonderful job of moving stuff around and I appreciate what they do. But there are those drivers who think they can do whatever the hell they want because their truck is so huge. I come up in the left lane, cruise control on 80, no one behind me. Some semi driver thinks he is super fast and needs to get around the other semi in front of him. He then pulls into the left lane at the last second, causing me to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him since he is going 65 and I am going 80. Seriously, you could not have waited for me to pass you? Or even pulled out sooner and not when I am right threre?!? There is no one in front of me or behind me!!
Ok, driver rant done! Luckily, the drive through Idaho and Montana is pretty clear so I don't go crazy dealing with drivers. There is not a lot here and there is little traffic. There are some places where it is 50 miles or more between services. There are a lot of exits that I pass that go to nothing but a farm house or two that are marked with "no services". I know I will need to get gas in Idaho and I am getting to know my truck pretty well. I need to push it as far as possible to minimize my stops. I pass up the opportunity to fuel up in Idaho Falls, the biggest city, erm town? I go through in Idaho. Dubois is in 60 miles and I can make it.
My gas light comes on just a few miles short of Dubois. I check my GPS just to make sure there actually is something there. Ok, good. There is one gas station. I pull off. 17.7 gallons. I could have gone a ways further! (21 gal tank) The gas light makes me nervous even though I know it comes on at 17.5 gallons. I go to clean off my filthy windshield and headlights. Apparently this gas station does not believe in providing people with scrubby things. The holders are there, but there is no liquid and no scrubber. Grrrr. I will have to do that when I get gas in Helena... I hope they believe in letting people clean their windshields.
As I drive, I can see small patches of rain. I hope I hit one and wash some of this shit off my truck. I don't. they are still kinda cool to look at!
I get back on the road and drive through a lot of nothingness. Ya know, there sure is a lot of space out west. I remember the road trips I took as a kid. I don't know if it is the age difference or the region. Probably both; little bit of age and a lot the region. I remember there either being a city or farm land. As far as I could tell, running out of gas 50 miles from a gas station was not a concern. There is still a lot of wilderness in the West it would seem. Kinda nice! Aside from the few major big cities (most of which I think I have hit on this trip!), most of the western states are either parks or farmland. It is kinda nice.
I cross into Montana. About this time I decide I should call my parents. I call my mom to let her know I am alive and well and ready to pick up my dad and come home! She is at work. Oops, I can never remember if she gets off at 4 or 5. She calls me back when she gets off. I call my dad to talk about any last minute things. I start driving through a mountainous area and promptly drop the call. Damnit! I need to stop doing that. Mountains block signal. Dur! I get through the mountains and call him back. He is excited about the drive. I am not so excited. He is the one that wanted to drive us up to the Arctic Circle in the dead of winter in a rental car the first time I had ever been to Alaska. He seems to like driving. Oh well, it will be a fun drive. Just really really long! I guess I should be used to driving by now.
Anyway, I get off the phone with him as I am pulling into Helena. I find the hotel that Chris suggested I stay at and check for vacancies. Yup, they have a room! Sweet. I bring my bag up. I have transferred my clothes that I am wearing for the next few days into a backpack. No more giant bag! I then walk across the street the the grocery store and get some dinner. I also get some bread so my dad and I can make peanut butter and no jelly sandwiches for lunch.
I head back, eat dinner, sit in the hot tub, get way too hot, swim a few laps in the pool, and get ready for bed. Time to sleep and prepare for the journey ahead!
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