Typical Montana Winter

Yesterday Gary had to work half a day so he decided that it would be nice to take a quick trip to Billings. After all he wanted to spend some more money at Harley. I took three hours off so I could spend a nice day in Billings too. At the same time we could get some tae kwon do uniforms.

It was so nice yesterday. The morning was very icy and driving was not fun, but the sun came out and melted all the ice away and it was a beautiful day. Mom called me and decided not to come up to Hardin, the roads were icy then but it was best she stayed in Wyoming. That way I wouldn't have to worry about her sliding off the road somewhere.

Gary checked the weather and the forecast called for snow but only a coating and not until 7:00 pm, no problem we had plenty of time and we would be home way before then. So off to Billings we went. Nice and sunny afternoon, 48 degrees beautiful.

Couldn't get the uniforms as Park's was closed so will have to pick those up on Wednesday after my dental appointment. Then we made our way to Harley, by this time the wind had kicked up out of nowhere. This was 3:00 in the afternoon. That's ok we can deal with the wind.

As we made our way to the Harley dealership the wind got stronger and the temperature started to drop. We must have been in the dealership for about 45 minutes. Gary bought a new patch, a new cap and some pin savers. I was going to get a new hat too but the one I wanted was too big and they didn't have a medium size. This particular hat was not adjustable. If I'm going to spend that kind of money, then it had better fit right. By this time a snow storm was blown in and it was blowing and snowing.

The deal was that if Gary got to go to the dealership, then I get to go to the mall. There is a store that sells nothing but Christmas stuff. Since I want to start a village this store had a Harley Davidson shop. I was hoping that it would be marked down enough that I would buy it, but not at $85. The village buildings and such were only marked at 25% off, not enough to make the stuff affordable, besides the Harley shop was gone. Snow was falling harder so instead of eating somewhere we decided to come on home.

We left the mall at 4:00, it took us a half hour just to get to the interstate. The streets were just starting to get slick but weren't bad yet, it was the traffic. The traffic was like it was on Black Friday. It was just amazing. By the time we got to the interstate it was blowing so bad that you literally could not see the road. Gary was driving and we were in my car. We weren't the only idiots out on the road so we were fortunate that we could see the tail lights of the vehicle in front of us. Yes there were idiots that were driving like crazy, probably the speed limit and on cruise too. Then we were in a complete white out. By the time we made it across the river the snow had let up some and we could see, also the road wasn't bad. Got to the gas station to fill up and get the ice off the wipers.

Back on the road we went. The Billings hill was fun, very slick and icy and we had to go slow about 45. Silly us thinking that the traffic would be very little, it seemed like Billings was evacuating. By the time we made it down the hill there was about a 4 mile line of cars behind us. There was one idiot that so close to us that Gary couldn't see their headlights in the mirror, we were hoping that we didn't need to stop for anything. People in front were using their brakes, for what we don't know. Gary was telling them to keep off the brake, just get your foot off the gas. Again people passing us up like we were standing still. The temperature was now only 13, a 35 degree drop in just a couple of hours. We finally made it home safe and sound. I was helping Gary brake on the passenger side. At one stretch of the road you could just see the ice glisten in the headlights. A very fun venture for a quick trip to Billings.

It only took us 2 hours to get home from the time we left the mall to our driveway. It usually takes an hour including the stop at the gas station. We were amazed at the amount of traffic during the storm. Probably people headed home after the holidays. Many cars still headed east past Hardin. I was glad we only had to go 50 miles. Wouldn't want to go any further.

Now I ned to point out that if it was my idea to go to Billings just because we wouldn't have gone. Not with a hint of a storm coming, but since it was Gary's idea, no problem we would be home long before the storm hit.