Traveling in the weather

In May of 2010 I had a trip planned to go to California. I am a delegate for my church and our annual Synod meeting was to be in Shafter, CA this year. This time I decided to drive out there pulling my 5th wheel trailer. I suppose the main reason I wanted to go with the camper was to see if in fact, I could handle it all by myself and still navigate the highways. The previous couple of years I drove out there once with my cargo trailer full of stuff for the girls and another time just with the pickup. Both of those times I drove about 900 miles a day. This time I had my living quarters with me and I could stop anywhere I wanted to spend the night, so I put a limit of 200 to 300 miles a day. The month of May is usually a pretty nice time of the year so I thought I would have a really nice trip this time. Well.......this is what I woke up to on the day of my scheduled departure:
Because this was a late season snow storm, it only lasted a day and by the time I got to Wyoming it was all gone. I visited friends in WY and by the time I got to the southern part of the state I ran into another snow storm. Then when I got to Salt Lake City, I hit another storm over the mountains with sleet and ice. There I just put my 4-way flashers on, pulled in behind a semi and just crawled over the pass. I still thank God for His traveling mercies.


This year, March of 2011, I decided to drive out again after having flown out in January but I drove without the trailer this time. Now in March we can still have some winter weather but I thought I could shoot between storms this time. Not so. The Friday I had planned to leave was the day that North Dakota got pounded. It was such a blizzard that Interstate 94 was closed across the whole state. It wasn't until Monday that the roads were open enough so that I could leave the state. Even at that, the road from Butte to the Interstate was ice covered and there was some fog that morning. I just love living in the Northern Plains!!!!