wordsfromanneli

Thoughts, ideas, photos, and stories.

A Cool Trip – Part 3

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From Exit 16, it’s not far to Missoula, one of our usual stops, but we pushed on this time and took a lunch break at Drummond, a bit farther east. Drummond is a tiny, tiny, tiny town, but it has a lovely community park, just past the sheep in this field.

While I made our lunch, the Captain let the dogs stretch their legs. They’d been very good about riding in their straw-filled crates in the back of the truck, but they were ready for a romp. Emma’s flying ears tell the story.

Then on we went, on our way. We took the shortcut to Helena by crossing on Highway 12 at Garrison. This meant going over MacDonald Pass at 6312 ft. It is on the Continental Divide, and that makes it seem special to me.

Going through Helena was uneventful, now that we have discovered the easiest route through it, turning onto Highway 15 North.

We tootled on happily until I said, “Oh, look at that fog up ahead.”

“Sure is thick, and we’re driving right into it.”

And then there were those dreaded orange and white barrels, forcing traffic into one lane for construction work that wasn’t even happening.

“That’s not just fog.” The Captain stated the obvious. We were heading into a blizzard.

See all the white stuff?

At one point, the orange and white barrels seemed to indicate that we should go into the right lane, and moments later we realized that we had exited I-15 and were on a little by-road with no place to turn back to re-enter the highway.

Being a little lower down, the visibility was better, but the winding road was narrow, and traffic was two-way. Not so much fun for a truck pulling a trailer. (You can see the highway above us to the left. So close and yet so far away.)

We came to a sign that said we had 8 miles to go to Wolf Creek, where we could rejoin the highway.

Oh joy! We were back on the main drag at last. With every mile, the air got whiter, and so did the fields, and the trees, and the road.

At this point we were feeling a bit of anxiety creeping in.

Author: wordsfromanneli

Writing, travel, photography, nature, more writing....

30 thoughts on “A Cool Trip – Part 3

  1. I’d say that this post is a bit of a “cliffhanger” but I don’t want to give folks the wrong idea! Again, beautiful scenery captured in the photos!!

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  2. This part of Montana is just pure magic. I have been in winter when I was young driving from California with my brother. It was magic then too. I have been many times since. Magic always.

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  3. It looks magic but to drive through it, not so nice. Looks like Winter is around the corner.

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  4. Eek! I think I’d be making a U-Turn back to the casino hotel!

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  5. I’m glad you were able to make your way back onto the main drag before the snow became really heavy! I would have been having a LOT of anxiety at this point.

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  6. Not a trip/road I’d like to be on.

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  7. looks romantic to me 🙂
    A bit of danger, a lot of beauty, some anxiety thrown in, and at the end of it, a great meal and bottle of wine waiting to be enjoyed ………..
    Life is Good !

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  8. I’m shivering just read it. Hope you guys stayed safe.

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  9. Yikes, very tricky driving😏I’m waiting for the next chapter…

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  10. “Coming soon to a theater near you.” 😉

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  11. You have all my sympathy. We got caught in a storm like that once. All we could see were the tail lights of the semi in front of us. We followed him for miles. If he’d have gone in the ditch we would have been right there with him.

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  12. It’s beautiful in lots of ways (especially if you’re inside in front of a cosy fire) but not to have to drive in it! I hate that.

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  13. That fog surely makes driving difficult.

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  14. Your story is intriguing and I love the way you have written it as you lived it, Anneli. yikes. Sometimes travel can take us into the most difficult circumstances. Your photos are terrific, too. What a stark change from the golden, clear hills with the romping dogs…to the frigid, foggy blizzard. I enjoyed Part 3, thanks for taking us along.

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  15. It sure was a quick change, and because we are resisting the modern-day gadgets – we still have only a fliptop cell phone, and no “smart” phone – (and had no Wi-Fi access anyway), we were not aware of what lay ahead of us (weather-wise).

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  16. I have driven I-15 a few times during my time living in Montana. It was too bad the freaky snowstorm made your travel not so much fun. The Wolf Creek area is a great little stop with a nice, comfy store not far from the dam.

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