This was my third and final cross country trip, this time on Route 80, I think. We selected the northern route with hopes of some side trips, specifically wanting to go through Yellowstone National Park. It was in the early fall – September I think.
East to west goes mainly through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. Mostly acres and acres of farmland. Pretty flat, boring land and roads. I had my dear Aunt Betty with me. She loved to talk and since I don’t talk much when I am driving, she talked and talked all those miles. I heard about people that I had never met. About their families and their children, some more than once. It was never a quiet mile, but travel-wise it was totally uneventful.
North off Route 80 to Yellowstone
Somewhere along the way, we veered north planning to visit Yellowstone National Park. I’m not sure what route it was. It was a bit of a rainy day and we stopped for lunch and gasoline mid-day. At the gas station, I asked to be sure we were on the right route to get to the park. That is when the trip changed.
I was warned that the park was closed and that it was snowing further north. No trip into Yellowstone that day. I asked for a route to get me back down to the main route into California and was directed to a very scenic two lane highway going up through Teton National Park. It was beautiful with the Aspen trees in full color.
Beautiful and serene until alas, as we climbed up the side of this mountain, the rain started to form flakes and then into a full-blown snowstorm. As I said earlier, it was a nice two-lane highway and it had then gotten steep drop-offs on either side. The storm was worsening and I had no chains or snow tires. And to turn around would have been difficult with the narrow road. There was no traffic in either direction. We were up there all alone.
At one point I slipped a little off the payment and had a bit of a problem getting back on the road. Finally, I managed to get climbing again. We went on up that mountain in Low Gear and me with sweating hands. We finally reached the summit and soon going down the other side into Idaho the storm lessened. My dear Aunt never stopped talking or became concerned about our situation. And again this was before cell phones so we were totally cut off from civilization for quite a bit of time.
From there we headed south into Nevada stopping for some gambling before reaching California. Once in California, I later made up for missing Yellowstone by taking my dear Aunt and her sister to Yosemite.
Two encounters with snow and ice out of three trips. Seems amazing, but it happened.
