Catrobatics and a winter wonderland...

Little Izzy obviously got too much sleep during the day yesterday.  It was a long driving day, and she spent most of it in her carrier.  So, when we were ready for bed last night, she was wide awake.  And having a young cat who is wide awake means... happy feet!  She has room to run and jump in the house and the 5th wheel... not as much "wide open spaces" on the boat.  She would jump from the dinette onto our berth, up to the helm seat, onto the dash, over the dinette, back to the berth, and onto my head.  I was OK with all of that, right up to the "onto my head" part.

I get it.  We have all been cooped up for days on the road, with one layover day.  Truly, she is a great little traveler - never makes a fuss.  I guess she just had some pent up energy?

We were up early, showered, and were on the road before 7:30 this morning.  Watching weather along our route, there is a cold front that is making for overnight lows 28 to 30 degrees... for the next 500 miles.  We set out with the goal to just make miles.  As soon as we pulled onto the road, it was clear that Mother Nature had an interesting day planned for us; check out the clouds over the mountains...

Joan was watching weather radar... "We're going to drive into some precip an hour or so up the road.  It looks like a fairly small cell."

Surprise!  It was 54º when we pulled out, and quickly dropped to 35º... followed by the first rain drops.  Then the rain thickened.  And the temp dropped.

"Does it say anything about snow anywhere along our route?" I asked.

"No."

Obviously, the weather weasels are in cahoots with Mother Nature.  It went downhill fast...

And the road looked like this...

Snow started to accumulate on the hood, the wipers... and finally on the road.  I slowed down while other traffic blew past us.  Climbing the pass between Livingston and Bozeman, the visibility went down to a couple hundred feet as the snow REALLY came down.  Big, wet flakes.  Coming down the other side of the pass was worse - Montana has a sense of humor about curves on bridges... and all those "Warning!  Bridge May Be Icy" signs.  The snow was sticking to the wipers and windshield, making the already limited visibility even worse... and cars were still blowing by us.  Then, we came up on flashing light: a rear escort vehicle to a REALLY wide load... and they were going a LOT slower than we were.  I went into the passing lane, got around the REALLY wide load, gripping the steering wheel even tighter, then swung back into the right lane, to allow the fast traffic to blow by us once again.  And then the front escort vehicle, going even slower!  Zig, zag - hang on Wild Blue, we're going around again NOW!  It took about 20 minutes to get my puckered butt unstuck from the drivers seat!

We used to drive in snow all the time.  I really dislike it when pulling something big like the boat or the 5th wheel.  And Wild Blue has never been IN snow before... she was NOT a happy girl.

We pulled into a Flying J in Bozeman.  According to weather radar, we should be out of the precip...

Wrong again.  I pulled under an overhang to fuel up, but the front of the truck and the back of the boat stuck out, in the snow.  The flakes were as big as my fist, and wet.  Here's a look at Wild Blue under that overhang...

We fueled up and continued west... in the snow.  After another 10 miles or so, it let up.  Then started in again.  Then let up.  Then started in again.  And all the while, the temp remained at 30 degrees.  I was very concerned about the water system in the boat.  We pressed on.

The precip finally turned back to rain, then quit.  The temp went up to 34º.  The road began to climb again, and the temp dropped again.  And then in the distance: a break in the clouds...

 
We had planned to stop at Osburn, then Coeur d'Alene, then Spokane... all had night time temps below freezing.  After 460 miles, I was bushed... we pulled off for the night, with a new plan: get the boat good and warm overnight, and hope some radiant heat gets back to the fresh water tank and pump.  And let Joan take me out for a relaxing supper.

I'm good with that plan.

Now that we are getting closer to our destination, we made some reservations for a slip in Anacortes for few nights before heading over to the San Juans.  We have some logistics to work out, and a couple days to do that will make it easier.

386 miles to go.

And now I have to make sure Izzy stays awake before we all go to bed.