"48"- Day 6- Speed Run
A dusty North Dakota dashboard at -5 degrees
Originally published 12/19/2022
Today was about covering ground. I drove over 600 miles today. In nine hours. We averaged 67 mph....WITH stops for food, fuel, and bathroom. It was an epic speed run and it was for a reason. A storm is brewing.
Conditions require hyper vigilance while driving
We checked the weather last night and found a pretty severe winter storm/blizzard would be hitting West Yellowstone starting Tuesday evening and ending Wednesday evening. It would include around 10 inches of snow, winds of 45 mph, and wind chills of 60 below zero. We contacted our VRBO host and were able to add a day, arriving on Tuesday instead of the planned Wednesday. But we had to get there.
Enchanted Highway sculpture
This afternoon (Monday) we found that the storm will be moving in earlier than planned and will start on Tuesday morning instead of Tuesday afternoon. We are currently in Bozeman, Montana, about 90 miles from West Yellowstone. We plan on leaving tomorrow morning and getting to West Yellowstone after the storm has started, but before it gets really nasty.
Bison along the interstate
We did grocery shopping tonight, got fuel, and prepared everything. We plan on waking tomorrow morning, throwing everything in the truck, and heading south at warp speed. After we arrive we'll find someplace to sit down and have a nice brunch. It's gonna get nasty.
We only went a few miles down the "Enchanted Highway". This is why. 4x4 all the way.
While we were running hard, we still saw some pretty cool stuff. We saw bison in North Dakota right along the interstate. We saw one or two of the metal sculptures we wanted to see on the "Enchanted Highway". The rest (around 9 more) will have to wait for another trip. The header of the blog today looks like a painting, but is a photo Laurie took with her phone, from a moving vehicle. Pretty intense scenery out here.
Intense scenery
We have a thing for retro 60's style road motels and stay at them whenever we can. That's the kind of place we're staying tonight, called the Sapphire Motel. The place is REALLY nice, with huge rooms, new high quality plumbing fixtures and walk in showers, and high speed internet. The furniture is straight out of the Brady Bunch den and our room has an actual working dial telephone! Neon out front tops it all off. It is the height of hipster cool.
Sapphire Motel, Bozeman, MT. It's super cool!
We'll check in tomorrow, from West Yellowstone if it all goes well. See you soon.