Road Trip, Day 3

Start: Fort Collins, CO

End: Twin Falls, ID

Distance: 635 miles

Drive time: 11 hours, 30 minutes

Oh how quickly things can change. We knew driving into Fort Collins the night before that there were some weather issues in Wyoming, but figured they would clear by morning. Just to be safe, we got an extra couple hours of sleep so we could start our drive after sunrise. We ate some breakfast, checked the weather report (the roads were looking a little crummy so the boys contemplated changing our route and heading north to Montana, but we stayed with our plan and figured we would see how the roads were) and hit the road.

Let's just say there is a reason there aren't many pictures from this part of the drive. I was too nervous to pick up the camera. There were snow drifts, white-outs and black ice. But we drove on, slowly, but still making progress ... until Laramie, Wyoming. Why did our progress stop there? Well because the road that we were taking over the Rockies was closed, had been for two days. The town was FULL of semi trucks waiting for the pass to open, and one even told us it would be another two days before they opened it. We were about to turn around and brave the roads back to Fort Collins when, just our luck, the pass opened!!! And even luckier, the roads over the pass were better than the ones we had already driven leading up to the pass.
It was smooth sailing from there with a quick stop in Rawlins, Wyoming and then again in Ogden, Utah.

I decided to speed ahead of the guys to get to Ogden early and check out this dog park I found online the day before. I figured these dogs of mine could use to run free for a little while and pick up their spirits a little. It was right off the freeway, so I called and got directions from my sister and found it easily. The bad part is that the park was closed! (But don't tell Brian because he gave me a hard time for wanting to stop so I told him and Rick that the dogs had a great time running free at the park. shhh!) We ran around in the nearby fields instead, but it just wasn't the same ... my poor dogs.

Once we got back on the road, Brian and Rick were way ahead of me so I didn't catch up to them again until at the hotel in Twin Falls. One thing I learned is how comforting it is just seeing that big yellow moving truck either ahead or behind me. It got a little lonely out there on the open road, just me and the dogs.

Our hotel that night wasn't as nice as the last, even the dogs didn't want to stay. But at that point, it didn't matter because we were exhausted.