Wow...that was a quick one! Last week we headed up to Montana, almost driving straight through. We'd spoken to Mike, Lucy's' brother this past summer when he'd offered. Other family members were rolling in, he's off the grid near Ennis MT and we're in. We haven't done a trip together up in that area since 2007, and it was time! Lucy 'hates' the cold due to her RA, so this was a bit of a stretch for her. She even questioned why we were going at first. In the end, all worth it and glad we made the trek.
Well, we loaded up the Grand Wagoneer and headed out Monday opting to drive instead of flying so we could bring Peanut along. I really wanted to drive straight through but hit the wall late that evening so we grabbed a room a the La Quinta in Casper Wyoming. Not to self; NEVER stay there again.. What a shit hole. We needed a pet friendly hotel and this was the only place with a room available. Bad decision. I was nervous just having the car parked out front thinking some crack head would break in it, or the car itself would be gone. Well, after several hours of sleep we were both awake and wanted out of there, so loaded up and headed out after only a couple hours of sleep. We'd hit Bozeman by 1030 hrs and 90 minutes later pulled up to Mike's place. Beautiful! He's off the beaten path and literally off the grid with no power or water avail. He's got it all figured out with solar, batteries, generator, water tanks and ... lots of wood for the fireplace! He's done a lot of work on the building he's converted into a home up top and it's looking awesome. Most of Lucy's family have rolled in from Nebraska, Mike's youngest boy is here with his girlfriend, Mikes' girlfriend Suzie Que is here and we've got a full house, all of us in 3 homes all together. Crazy part is EVERYONE has a dog or two ... and we have NINE dogs in attendance. Cool part is, it worked. They all got along. No drama. True for all the family as well. By Saturday, many of us are rolling back to NE and TX after an awesome week. No Drama, just good times.
I got caught off guard this trip with my 'health.' Few years ago I was here on Snowmobiles and all was fine. But about a month ago I had an ablation and ..... its kicked my ass. My symptoms were basically that of Altitude Sickness (we're up over 8k ft). So, I stayed off the toys (side by side, 4 wheeler, Snowmobile) and basically just enjoyed everyone's company. I might have snuck in a shit load of naps too; hey ... vacation! When Turkey day was finally upon us, Mike and a few others put together a feast of Turkey and Ham and all the trimmings one would expect. Few pies in the mix as well. Then top it off watching a couple football games and .... all was a success! Couple days later we'd be giving hugs and kisses and rolling out.
Have to admit I was a notch nervous. The roads up to the cabin/home are basically single file with a few pull offs . It think its about 6 or 7 miles total off the highway and onto snow covered dirt roads with patches of ice and quite a few drop-offs if someone screwed up. Well, on the way in it was sunny, mid day and the Jeep WS handled awesome. On the way out, it's about 4:30 am, some fresh snow and .... lots of icy areas. Ryan (nephew) takes the lead with his family and I'm about six to ten car lengths behind him, tranny in low, xfer case in 4 Low. As it'll turn out we don't meet any other vehicles headed out until we hit two lanes, but .... did have a small issue. When we were almost out of the 'off the grid roads' when we came to a "T" and had to take a left. I realize Ryan's problem when I'm about 20' from the stop sign with a slight decline and .... can't stop. I'm sliding towards the intersection slowly, with the vehicle starting to go sideways. I'm tapping the brakes trying to get a grip with no slide and finally get it stopped just as I'm almost into the intersection. But, Ryan has already taken a left on the ice and ... finds himself 1/2 off the road with his right side tires about 2' into the bank .. and they are sunk down. We both get out to discuss and ... can barely walk; pure ice on the road. Well to his credit, he almost got his SUV out of there. He made a 1/2 dozen attempts finally ending up off the road in the grass and snow, but came close to literally 'jumping' over the snow bank with a good run at it. But with a car full of kids and wife, threw in the towel. None of us had a cell signal so the decision was made for Lucy and I to press on and make a call. Two miles later, a signal and we were speaking to Mike and giving him the news. An hour later they would be back on the road behind us.
Good news is we got an early start. Bad news is I'm dragging ass. Later that day when we were headed down '25 in Wyoming, I took a nap while Lucy put some miles on the WS. Later that night she'd do the same thing bringing us through Amarillo. All I needed was a lil shut eye. However, by 0100hrs we're hitting the wall. So we find a rest area, shut it off and we get about 60 to 90 minutes of shut eye. It's about 35 deg out and around 0300 I wake up shivering get it started and we're rolling East. As the sun comes up were rolling into Greenville. All in all, about 27 hours to get home. Guess that was about 24 hours of drive time. We'd take a 1-2 hour nap that morning at home, and headed out with friends to SWG. Hard to believe we kicked it up after all that.
Next month we make another drive, similar distance to SoCal with Peanut. Except, we're going to plan an overnight stay in advance at a reputable hotel this time around!
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| Lucy has first dibs and we head out |
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| I'm a bum .... I like this side |
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| Our shithole motel. Aint that nice? |
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| Unpacking Biggun'. Really thought it'd get broke into |
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| Headed West in Montana |
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| View from Mike's patio |
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| View from his living room |
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| Siblings |
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| Yeah.... Peanut was a bum (Ginger on the left) |
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| Couldn't get enough of this view |
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| Preparing to take a family pic. Herding cats! |
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| Front Yard! |
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| Family Pic the day after Turkey Day |
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