So close... yet so far. got to love wyoming

[bnbrown]

Made it from CA all the way to the wyoming border yesterday with bareley having to take the cruise off... hit the wyoming line and nothing but an ice road... stayed the night right there in evanston (I-80 wyo/utah line) figured I would sleep in a little and let the ice melt off a little... didnt get in till 2am. started out this morning at 10AM to make the whopping journey to essentially cheyenne and my warm bed... . but instead spending the night on the front seat at a gas station since I-80 is closed... only 150 miles from home. Got a box (VP core to be precise) holding the go pedal for 1100 rpm... . least i have heat

Have yet to see wyoming DOT put down a single grain or salt or sand... just hoping the weather improves and can make that vast voyage home tomorrow and not give up and back track to salt lake to take I-70...

 

[scootergmc]

Glad you made it!! How'd you make the Reno to Winnemucca trip?

 

[bnbrown]

wound up just renting from enterprise, was able to get the one way for $50 additional... so $125 including fuel. that part went just too easy I guess... once I hit the wyoming line my average speed dropped to 35mph driving on solid ice with a little blowing snow tossed on for fun. only made it from evanston to rawlins on saturday in 6 hours before I-80 closed and got to spend a nice night in a parking lot. Made the whopping 100 miles home this morning in 4 hours (with no stops) was a real nice road... would be doing 40 starting up the hills, but drive wheels would start spinning so usually only topped the hill at 25... (with a trailer of course).
so if you ever have the oppertunity to drive I-80 through wyoming in the winter... pass on that.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Ah Wyoming, driving I-80 in the winter can be FUN because that route is 6000ft and higher pretty much the entire way across the state. I drove across Wyoming in early Feb two years ago to get a car from Indiana. Fortunately the roads were OK both ways but I was definitely nervous. Worst part was some compact snow and a little blowing snow, but less than a week after I went through a big storm came and there was a big pileup with a few fatalities.

 

[Gene Arnold]

Seven years ago I drove from Boise to Rock Springs on Easter Sunday. Checked into Motel Six and went to supper about eight o'clock. Sun had been shining and it was a beautiful day all the way. During supper I could hear snatches of conversations that concerned me so I asked the cashier if I'd heard correctly about I-80 being closed eastbound. He said no one was getting out of RS eastbound due to a blizzard around Laramie and Cheyenne. It was 9 a. m. Monday before the road was opened out of RS. Well, I drove easily to Rawlins and then encountered a total traffic jam, both lanes, with no one moving an inch for about an hour. When the State Patrol got the traffic moving again I decided to stay in the fast lane and it was a good decision because no one could change lanes all the way past Sherman Hill. I got between a couple of eighteen-wheelers and drove to Cheyenne faster than I've ever driven it before or since!! When we left Laramie the westbound lanes were totally stopped just as the eastbounds had been at Rawlins. Truckers out playing cards on the hood of their trucks, etc. Total shutdown, both lanes, for nineteen miles east of Laramie. All this with scarcely a cloud in the sky, no snow or ice on the road, etc. Just the left-over mess from a fast moving Sunday blizzard.



If there is any weather at all it will be at its worst around Elk Mountain. Also, just about anywhere in Wyoming, the snow is always on the move. You can have cloudless skies and still not be able to drive because of zero visibility at ground level.



I went to Jr. Hi and High School in Buffalo. The coldest I've ever seen it in my 72 years was one night in 1949 when it got to 52 below zero. The next morning I walked a half mile to school and it was still 38 below (didn't have a local radio station to report the temperature in those days).



Gene

 

[bnbrown]

I have definately had good days and bad days getting through, we actually live south and a little east of the summit between laramie and cheyenne. Out here it will snow on Monday... but blow it around till Wednesday pretty easily if it hasnt gotten warm enough to stick it to the ground. Have made the run from Cheyenne or Nebraska through to CA probably a dozen times in the last two years... and even once in February, that time was coming through with an empty truck, hooked to an empty trailer... coming through at night... looked fine in Laramie (hotels were all sold out otherwise we just would have called it a night) so pushed farther west. Got to about 10 miles out of Laramie and the snow and wind started, could only see maybe 30' and was driving through a couple inches of powder with atleast a 60mph crosswind, made it going slow to about a mile from elk mt and hit ice on one of the bridges, nothing like seeing your trailer out your drivers side window on the Interstate was able to get it all back straight and spent the rest of the night at the rest stop there wondering if the truck and trailer were going to stay put or just start sliding on the ice the wind was blowing so bad. Of course the "super truckers" were still flying by at 50-60mph, and a few were flying right into the ditch...
I have learned to have a great deal of respect for the roads through there, I try not to drive through at night even in summer now, got snowed on passing through there in June last year. Also try to hit it with a couple days worth of fuel, food and water. This time I was just cruising through @ 35-40mph with the flashers going... handy to have the CB on too, can get some advance warning on really poor spots and disabled vehicles to dodge. Made the mistake once of trying to keep up with the semis... they may be able to maintain 60mph as long as they dont have to slow or steer.
Was just a little extra frustrating this time, a week out and only 100 miles from home.