Hubby & I headed to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my parents, my younger brother & his family.
We decided early on that we weren’t flying (flying at Thanksgiving is CRAZY!!!) and we would drive. We have a geriatric dog that my husband doesn’t want to leave, and the dog can’t fly.
What an adventure it turned out to be!
Growing up in the Midwest, I knew that this would potentially be a risky deal as weather is very unpredictable this time of year. I packed an emergency bin (that hubby thought I was going overboard with packing) but we were prepared should anything happen.
Thankfully we didn’t need to use the emergency bin, but I’m very glad we had it along. (Snow pants, hats, scarves, emergency blankets, snowshoes, micro-spikes and extra winter coats.)
We left the Sunday before Thanksgiving and headed east on I-90 across Washington, the Idaho panhandle and Montana. In eastern Montana, we headed north on I-94 through North Dakota.
On our first morning, we had a beautiful sunrise as we drove through eastern Montana. And a beautiful drive to Dickinson, ND for our 2nd night.
We were able to stop into the visitor center of Teddy Roosevelt National Park and take a quick look around. We chatted with the ranger and got lots of info and advise from him for a future visit. We’ll come back in a better season to check out that park.
The next morning things started getting a bit snowy!
We headed east out of Dickinson, ND knowing that there was a winter storm coming through. It was an interesting day driving to say the least.
We drove anywhere from 15-50 mph in an 80-mph zone from Dickinson to Fargo. Along the way, we started seeing vehicles in ditches, semi’s or fifth wheels jack-knifed and overall, really bad driving conditions. Several times, the wind would catch the backend of our pick-up truck and cause us to fishtail a bit. I’m very thankful that my hubby did such a great job driving that day.
At one point, traffic slowed and as we passed, we saw the above semi heading west-bound in the left lane of eastbound I-94! We didn’t see any tire marks that indicated how he got that way. The center median between east & west bounds wasn’t broken, there were no tire marks in the ditch, and we didn’t see any slide marks that would have gotten it spun around. It’s a mystery!
We pulled off the road in Fargo to let the dog out and decided we were done for the day. I called the hotel chain and explained the situation, and they graciously refunded our points for the night so we could then use them book a night in Fargo. There was no way it would have been safe to continue on for several more hours. (We learned later that I-94 westbound in western MN had closed due to a 15-vehicle pileup. I’m not sure if that would have closed eastbound, but I’m glad we didn’t try to find out.)
By the next morning and a good night’s sleep, conditions were significantly better. We left Fargo and headed toward mom & dad’s. It was fairly snowy the whole rest of the way and we drove slower than the speed limit, but it worked out just fine. We arrive safely.
We enjoyed a very nice time with my family over the holiday. My SIL was working on Thanksgiving, so we had the traditional dinner on Friday. But we got to hang out all day with family both days, which was fantastic!
Saturday, winter storms hit southeastern WI with 8-10″ of snow. It was beautiful and nice to be cozy at mom & dad’s for the day. We were glad we had 4-wheel drive.
We had a wonderful visit with family and were glad we were safe!
Part 2 to come (we have to get back home!)