Sunday, January 16, 2011

Day 2 on the Road

We went through a roller coaster of temperatures today. It was -12c when we started out. Soon after leaving Lethbridge I noticed the road looked wet. Strange. Then I noticed the outside temperature on the dash said +2c. As we drove south the temperature gradually rose to +6c. Then as we were driving along the windshield suddenly fogged up on the outside - the temperature had suddenly dropped back to -6c. But it rose again and got up to +12c around Great Falls where we stopped for lunch. This was 33c warmer than when we left Saskatoon at -21. It felt pretty nice.

The scenery around Great Falls was more like fall than winter. Much of the ground was bare. Flocks of Canada Geese were feeding in the stubble. But further south it was winter again with snow covering the countryside.

Then it started to rain and as we went over a few higher passes the temperature dropped. I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't start to freeze.Thankfully the lowest it got was +2c and the road stayed wet rather than icy.

Past Butte the temperature got back up to +6 but that didn't last. As we cross the border into Idaho it dropped below zero. Luckily the rain stopped and the road was dry. The sign said "Welcome to Idaho" but the thick fog that greeted us wasn't especially welcoming as the last of the daylight fades away.

We're definitely in cattle country - big herds everywhere. There was also a large group of pronghorns beside the highway. Hard to count but it looked like hundreds. We also saw a couple of bald eagles - probably feeding on road kill.

Tomorrow we'll continue South through Salt Lake and hopefully escape winter at some point. Rain predicted tonight, but with any luck it'll stay above freezing.

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