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blizzard warnings - 13:52 , 03 October 2013

heelerless - 21:32 , 18 August 2013

Red Coat Inn in Fort McLeod - 11:38 , 23 June 2013

rushing into the waters - 09:53 , 21 June 2013

choosing a spot - 17:43 , 27 April 2013

22 December 2007 - 23:58

the drive south - daylight

Okay, I'm still experimenting with the new camera, so be prepared for an image-intensive entry:

We needed to go east to go south for Christmas. Problem is, there is only one way, literally, to go east.

The Interstate.

There are no back roads, no secondary highways, county roads, or anything else. Unless you want to commit trespass and drive along the railroad tracks (which I have done on more than one occasion... doable, but not wise).

And yesterday the interstate going east was closed. And still closed this morning, with the webcam showing a line of semis backed up at the gate, waiting for the gate to rise. So we packed for the trip, and then we waited.

And waited.

Later in the morning, they opened the highway. Around noon, the webcam showed the semi traffic thinned down.

We left. Heading first west into town to pick up eldest son.

Later, family members would ask the wife how the roads were. "Terrible" was her response. But really, they weren't that bad. Visibility was crappy, sure, but at least the road surface was dry.

But not everywhere. While we were in town picking up the son, they had two chain reaction wrecks immediately west of town. Three fatalities in one, due to the family driving into the rearend of a snowplow in the middle of a ground blizzard.

"Ground blizzard"...

For those of you in warmer climes, a ground blizzard isn't a blizzard at all. Today, as is usual with ground blizzards, the skies were clear. But if the air is too cold for the snow to settle and stick, high winds sweep the white stuff across the ground in great sheets.

The snow flows and races over hills and down valleys. You're in a perfectly clear winter day one instant, and in a total whiteout the next.

It's not the snow that's the problem, of course.

It's the things hidden in the snow you have to worry about.

And as most residents of our state know, in whiteout conditions, you probably need to be more worried about the traffic behind you than the vehicles in front.

It was the semi behind 'em that caused the fatalities just six miles west of town.

Sooner or later, the snow piles up into drifts.

Which is why our highways are surrounded by the huge snowfences.

But away from the downslope side of the Divide, on the windward side of the next mountain range, the winds die down, and driving was pretty mundane.

All the on-coming traffic was reassuring, since it meant the highway was passable.

At least, on their side. On our side we had reminders why they had closed the highway the day before.

The windward side of the mountains was quite peaceful...

But the leeward side put us right back into ground blizzards.

Which kept up all the way to University Town.

Where daylight left us.

Again, on the windward side of the next range, we enjoyed clear roads and clear skies. Even getting a peek at sunset in the state to the south.

And a moon rising over the canyon.

But as we passed Abe at the next summit

we found portents of more bad roads to come.

And sure enough, this leeward slope was worse than the others.

And lasted for dozens of miles.

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