Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Through Montana and over the the mountain


Thursday November 29th
Got a slow start this morning (must have been on Cathey’s schedule).  Once we got gassed up and on the road, I got out my computer and was going to do some writing but the computer wouldn’t boot-up.  I tried a couple more times and then texted the Michigan City helpdesk (son Jim).  He asked for symptoms and what I was seeing on the screen.  He gave me a couple of secret key combinations to force the boot-up process but to no avail.  His last bit of advice was to get to an Apple Store and let the genius folks there do their magic.  Due to that I missed a lot of the scenery between Billings and Livingston.  Cathey stopped in Livingston and got a snack at a very busy Dairy Queen. 
From there I drove to Three Forks where we usually stop at the Montana Wheat store for a sandwich and baked goods.  Then on to Missoula where we arrived about dark; we stopped for gas and then had to make a decision whether to stop there for the night or try to get over Lookout pass before we stopped.  (Lookout Pass is about two hours beyond Missoula and the next town with more than one motel is Coeur d’Alene, ID, which is about another hour.)  We called the Montana DOT road report number for pass information and found out that the road was considered wet with temperatures expected to be between 34 and 38 until 11pm.  So we decided to continue on our way rather than take the chance that tomorrow it might be snowing there and road conditions might be worse.
As it turned out the pass was a non-event; the road was wet but traffic was light and everybody seemed to be driving cautiously.  We gained an hour on the clock crossing the Idaho line, so I think we checked in the motel in Coeur d’Alene about 7:30, much relieved.

No comments:

Post a Comment