Long Distance Winter Trip Advice

[matthew1]

Once you get down here you'll find it's warm and pleasant. I don't know how long that'll last though.

Drive safe!

[BlackBart]

^^ jonesg - New Blizzak non-studded snows. The best for ice.

I was impressed with these new WS90’s on cold dry pavement as well. Solid, good tracking, not wallowing like typical soft wall snow tires. Really good in the wet, too.


Success! We are here, safe and tired! 12 1/2 hours, no problems.

Thick fog coming out of Missoula, up the river in the dark. 45mph, rear fog light on (you can sure see where your headlights are aimed!). Then it was pretty much clear and dry all the way. Got out of the car in Wyoming once and it was crazy warm - too much fleece! Got out of the car another time in WY and you could hardly stand up pumping gas, it was so windy.

WY roads are in amazingly nice condition - smooth and new. Must be oil money. (Colorado I-25 is crappy)
WY has big overhead electronic info signs regularly - yesterday they said “Current wind gusts 45+”, “Current wind gusts 55+”. You drive past a bluff and the car sucks right, then blasts you left after you pass. There are regular blizzard gates, like railroad crossing gates, that come down over the whole width of the freeway with flashing lights. Highway Is Closed. You can take that exit to a small town, or there’s a 180 turnaround.

The sparse traffic hums along at 80+. You just get used to it. At night it’s best to keep pace and plug in to a gap, like riding an escalator. Then no one passes you with headlights in your mirrors. As you get closer to Denver, that mysterious urban gravitational pull (UGP) kicks in, with pushy aggressive drivers with bright lights in your mirrors, jammed up against the backs of semis.

I got 21mpg, 27, 23.... I think it’s winds, maybe climbing in elevation, heavily loaded, and the inconsistency of when the gas pump kicks off. And we never drove slow enough to see how she does at 65, 70.

So, as many suggested, no tool or snow shovel left the back of the car, except a rag to check the oil.

[volvolugnut]

Just the trip you wanted - scenery, stories, and no events.
volvolugnut

[BlackBart]

I always forget, Wyoming is a starkly beautiful, raw, rugged place. It’s a brown and yellow state, sometimes some red dirt. No trees, except in the river bottoms. Bare. No farms, it won’t grow anything but sagebrush. Cattle, antelope, snow fences. Rugged mountains in the distance. And now, interestingly, thousands of big wind turbines way east on the horizon. Smart.

It’s such a different landscape than Montana.

[abscate]

Keep an eye out for red chairs

[BlackBart]

Will do!

[volvolugnut]

For some unknown reason, I like red chairs.
volvolugnut

[matthew1]

Great meeting you and your wife, BB! Thanks for stopping by, and for bringing me cookies. I love cookies.

Same for anyone living here or driving through -- I'm always happy to meet and talk shop over coffee or tea or bubbly fizzwater. Just contact me. You'll find yourself leaving with a free MVS tshirt.

[abscate]

WY roads improved greatly after the Head of DOT got invited on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney

[BlackBart]

^^^ No wonder!

So great to meet you, Matt! I love your house, your neighborhood, your photographs. Thanks so much for the chat. Cool to see the guts of how MVS actually works.

Had a really good visit with my sister and we’re back in FC. Glorious sunshine today. About to go on an Xmas walk around the neighborhood.

Happy Christmas to everyone out there.