White Knuckling It For 180 Miles This Week!!

Last weekend I was off on a little romantic journey to meet the love of my life.  Her name is Sherry and she lives in Spokane and I live here in Bismarck---a distance of 940 miles.  So we decided to meet in Bozeman, Montana, which is pretty much half-way.

I left on Friday afternoon and got to my destination on Friday night around 830.   It was great drive, sunny and clear.  And since the weather was so nice I decided to drive my rear-wheel drive Mercedes---it's a great road car.    Sherry arrived from Spokane a little after 9pm and we had a great time in Bozeman.   Stayed at a great hotel, enjoyed some great meals, the Rocky Mountain Museum was amazing, and we saw two movies---"Noah" with Russell Crowe and then Liam Neesan's latest movie---"Non Stop."   It was an amazing day on Saturday and Sunday we had a great breakfast, and then had to say our heartfelt goodbyes.  After an amazing kiss goodbye--time to hit the road.   It was very light snow in Bozeman when I hit I-90 around 2pm.   The snow ended and it was light rain and then absolutely nothing at all as far as precipitation until I was past Billings on I-94.  By the time I hit Miles City, it was really rainy and windy.  But--NO SNOW.  Then by the time I hit Glendive that's where it became very scary, snow began to fall at a very rapid rate and the temperature had dropped from 37 to 30.   I-94 was pretty much a snowy-icy interstate and I found driving a rear wheel drive car to be a very scary proposition.   I little yellow triangle lights up on the dashboard when the Mercedes has poor traction, and it was lighting up like crazy and I was only going 25-30 miles and hour and following an 18-wheel truck.  It was really getting treacherous, slipping and sliding, I almost exited at Wibaux, but kept on going for another few miles and when I cross the state line into North Dakota and made it to Beach--I decided that was as far as I was going to go on Sunday night and I just didn't want to wind up in a ditch and really stranded in the ice and snow.    I was lucky to find a room at the "Buckboard Inn" in Beach.  And that would be my home Sunday night and on Monday night  I-94 had a "No Travel" advisory, so I had no choice but to hang out at the Buckboard Inn for a couple of  nights.    Here's what it looked like in Beach and a pic of my frozen Mercedes!!

As you can see the poor Mercedes was frozen, and there was a lot of snow on the ground in Beach.   I hate missing doing my morning radio show, but I simply couldn't make it back to Bismarck.  Finally on Tuesday they lifted the No Travel Advisory was lifted and I hit I-94 around 8am.   And that 160 miles back to Bismarck from Beach was one of the scariest journeys ever for me.   Even though I-94 was generally clear and dry, there were patches of ice that made it so scary---I was literally white knuckling it all the way home.   When you hit those icy patches you have NO control of what your car is going to do.  There was some fish-tailing, but finally after around 4 hours I saw my exit #159 on I-94 and within a few minutes I was back home safe and sound.  But it was the scariest drive of my life!  It was one of those times that my guardian angel worked overtime!!  

The Mercedes got parked in the garage and I started driving my little Toyota RV4 that IS 4-Wheel Drive and like all this winter time...never got stuck.    The Mercedes will be back on the road since we're hitting the 50's this weekend, and from what I see, hitting over 70 by Wednesday and I believe the top will be dropping.  I do love my convertible!!