October 24, 2022 Day 16 Wamsutter Wyoming to Evanston Wyoming 173 miles
It’s cold and very windy. The morning started very cloudy but cleared to partly cloudy. We had constant head and side wind with gusts up to 40 mph. The puddles in the parking lot are all frozen. The snow on the windshield came off partly but Rob had to scrape the rest off. A thin layer of snow is on the roof of the car. The car refused to start so Rob got out the jump-start battery he bought in Hershey. That started the car but the water in the engine is partially frozen. He started taking ice buckets of hot water out to the car to pour on the water pump. That wasn’t enough. He kept taking more and more hot water out. Luckily this little place has very hot water. He spent over an hour getting the car thawed out. Unfortunately during one of those trips he slipped on the ice and fell. We don’t think he broke anything but he is a bit stiff and sore. He will have a trophy bruise tomorrow. With no engine damage we finally left the motel about 11:15 which is much later than normal. We are going on the freeway today because the backroads are nearly three times as far and are probably snow covered. We can’t believe how many semi trucks travel this freeway. Of course they are going over 70 mph. Poor woodie really struggles with all the wind. We hardly got out of second gear. Wow, we crossed the Continental Divide. We didn’t even seem all that high. We nearly got rear ended by one of those semis. One was passing us on the left and another was coming up in our lane. The driver must not have been paying attention because he ended up driving half on the shoulder and half in the dirt. We thought he was going to tip over. A rest area was just ahead and he kept going along the edge onto the off ramp. Sure wish we had a video of that one. He was not injured so we didn’t stop. We drove for over 2 hours to get to a Walmart to buy antifreeze. We are expecting another cold night. We also bought sandwiches and ate those in the car. Then it was back on the freeway with a target of Evanston which is about 100 miles further. We did cross over one mountain pass and the snow is still on the ground. Not on the road though thank goodness. By the time we got to Evanston it was approaching 5:00 o’clock. Time to stop for the day. Enough fighting the wind for one day. We checked into the hotel, went to the grocery store to buy supper and returned to the hotel. Rob drained the radiator and put in the antifreeze. Hopefully things will go better tomorrow. Now to see what the weather forecast is.
Spoffords Travel 