Winter Storm Warning

I had to stop driving for a while - the tires were getting dizzy.

Rattlesnake Pass -- Utah

One thing about living on the road is you don’t live out of a suitcase but you do live glued to weather reports during certain times of the year in certain places.  You’ve got to be flexible enough to change plans when the weather threatens to cause havoc. 

Minimum speed -- 45 mph

We had planned on leaving Salt Lake City on Tuesday.  My cousins, Wally and Susie, were leaving the area on Monday.  After getting ready to head back over to the Genealogy Library on Monday morning I decided to check the weather forecast for the strip through the mountains.  It seems the weather forecast is rarely right-on.  However, who am I to question the forecast especially when we’re all familiar with Murphy’s Laws.  The prediction --- strong winds through southern Idaho on Tuesday and a winter storm in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon.   In other words, if we didn’t make a run for it on Monday, we would probably be waiting for the winds to pass in Idaho and stuck waiting for the snowstorm to move out of the Oregon mountains.  Instead of heading out for the library we decided if we wanted to spend Easter with the kids, we’d better get out of there.  We left.

Traveling north on I-84 from Salt Lake there are more mountains and there were even more strong winds.  I got a little tired of seeing all the signs warning of frequent high winds in the area.  There weren’t supposed to be any on this day.  I can just imagine how bad they get if they are predicted.  We had seen more wind this winter than any other time.  It was windy just about every place we were and we were real, real, real tired of it.

We were happy when we finally started going down in elevation.  We knew we’d be going up again  but felt all this climbing would soon be behind us.  Soon just couldn’t come soon enough.

Sometimes my little GoPro Hero camera gets reflections if the sun is just right  ... oh well.

Our intent was to get through the Boise area Monday night to miss the strong winds heading that way Tuesday afternoon.  The winter storm was to blast the mountains late Tuesday night.  So, it seemed we would run from the wind on Monday and the snow on Tuesday.  According to the current forecast there was the perfect little window for us by leaving Monday morning.  We could actually avoid both.  NOT!

We were both beat when we stopped.  I think it was the strong winds and all the mountains that finally got us.  My cousin stopped about 100 miles before we did.  The winds got to him too.  He had some mighty rough side winds coming through some of the passes and enough was enough for one day.

There were a few places in Idaho I had intended to stop but we felt like we needed to keep moving.  The storms were setting the pace for us.  I had wanted to visit Shoshone Falls.  I love waterfalls and this one wasn’t far off the road.  However, it was not to be and figured that it might be best just to enjoy someone else’s picture of it.  So, here you go too.

Shoshone Falls

It’s not that we were really missing a lot in my mind by “flying” through this part of Idaho.  I actually knew it pretty well but that was many, many years ago.  As I matter of fact, I went to school in Idaho.  I also rolled a car down a hill along this route.  The roads were packed with snow and obviously I was going a little too fast.  I tried to pick out the area but everything has changed so much.  All I could remember is that it was just before a bridge but bridges change and even terrain gets filled in.  Oh well … it wasn’t snowing and the road was dry this time (thank goodness!) .  This part of the drive was real nice.  We had left most of the wind behind at least for this day.

Monday was miles and miles of climbing. We were happy when it finally flattened out for a while.   Our stop for the night was the Caldwell Elks.  Even though the sign said not to parallel park next to the electrical hookups, we were told we could.  The last thing we wanted to do was unhook the trailer!  We got chastised when trying to check in about having an expired Elks card.  Oops … it expired the day before.  We were allowed to slide by but now that puts us to Plan B. 

Plug-ins out back at the Caldwell Elks.

Plan B was to go to our own Elks lodge to get a new card since we may not get to slide by again at another lodge.  We definitely need a current card.  We love staying at the Elks …. especially for the price and the locations.  Some of the sites are just hookups in a parking lot and others are full-fledged parks.  However, the convenience, location and price really make a difference when you’re on the road.  The Caldwell Elks was $10 for the night.  That price is hard to beat and it was just off the freeway in another great location!

At this point we figured the worst day was over and we’d sail through the next … NOT!  The next day was the worst yet.  It’s easy to look back and see what really did happen but then the forecast is no longer available to see what was predicted prior to that.  This is part of the warning that was posted on Weather.com  ….

"A VIGEROUS LATE SEASON WINTER STORM WILL BRING MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN OREGON AND SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON ON TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. ….. MOUNTAIN SNOW SHOWERS THROUGHOUT THE DAY WEDNESDAY.”

Remember ---- there were strong winds forecast to hit eastern Oregon before the snow.  The winds were due to start blowing in the afternoon.  At least that was the prediction when we went to bed.  However, the following morning we discovered those winds were already pretty strong and already  hitting our path ahead of the predicted snow.  Gusts had been clocked around 47 mph with straight winds around 38 mph.  I just love the forecast when it changes just as the weather changes and not before.  We don’t like to travel in strong winds.  We had to choose.  It was either the wind or the snow … or maybe both.  That put us in the middle of a dilemma.  What to do?  Should we sit and wait or should we move down the road a bit to get a little closer and then make a decision?  In the meantime, Cousin Wally was already on the move.  We decided to move too.

This is getting longer than I like so I best say  ……..  to be continued ~~~ 

‘Tis life on the road.