Yesterday was football Saturday so I just laid back in our soft, comfy recliner, clicker in hand, and spent the day watching football. I love college football. Fortunately, the two teams I am attached to, Michigan and Michigan State, both won. However, their wins were not very impressive and if either team wishes to be national force, they are going to have to develop some mental toughness. Too many mistakes, missed blocks, dropped passes, too many penalties. Sigh.
We were going to leave our campground this morning and start making our way through and around the Rocky Mountains. However, it rained here last night. Thus, Mary Margaret suggested that we wait a day since tomorrow’s weather will be improving. My inspection of the weather impacts on the route we will be taking shows that the roads only received rain but, with temperatures hovering in the low 30’s, bridges and overpasses could be slippery, especially until the temperatures slowly rise as the day progresses.
The higher elevations did get a dumping of wet snow. Originally, we were going to push up, over and then through the mountains surrounding Yellowstone to get to our next campground, called Red Mountain, near Manhattan, Montana. However, after our drive a few days ago exploring Yellowstone, we decided not to do so. There was a very bad section of road that was all torn up and under repair. That section was 4 miles long and you could only drive 10 to 20 miles an hour on it. Plus, we would have to go over passes that cut through the Absaroka Range that reached up to 8500 feet. Instead, we decided that we will be driving due north to go around the Absaroka Mountains before heading west to Bozeman, Montana. This would avoid going over the higher mountain passes keeping our elevation below 5500 feet. This morning, Red Lodge, Montana, whose elevation is about 5600 and is only about 30 miles from our route, did have a few inches of wet snow that as of 8 AM still had snow on the ground. This webcam photo demonstrates this.
With this eye on the weather and the potential impacts on road conditions, we have decided to stay put here at our campsite near Cody, Wyoming for one extra day to let the road conditions improve before we head out.
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 