Day 58 Craig, Colorado

Well, I won't be making much mileage today with all the storm warnings. I will wait until later in the morning to let the temperature rise more. It has stopped snowing here, with about an inch on the ground, the streets wet.

If I had not stopped at the Dinosaur National Monument I might have made it over the Rockies before the snow shut off the passes but the Dinosaur Monument was a treat I gave myself. I woke at the campground in Salt Lake City yesterday at 3:30 a.m. when it began to rain lightly. By 7:30 it was raining steadily and water stood in the road and pooled on the lawn. I got underway about 9:30 and once out of the city began to climb. The mountains were beautiful even in the rain, like some giant paisley shawl spread across them, green, yellow, red, orange, purple, just lovely.

Then as I climbed I saw snow flurries. I was already driving in the slow lane to avoid hydroplaning and I kept inching my way along. Then the ground and roofs were white and I passed a snow-plastered sign that said Parley's Summit. I had been watching the outside temp gauge drop to 32 degrees and I hoped to get over the summit without any problem and I did. Still raining, I stopped at Heber, consulted he map and saw another mountain pass ahead of me. I drove through snow for about 10 miles but that was on the flats and got over the pass okay. The sky was heavy with very dark clouds and I hoped to stay ahead of them. I did for a while but then I turned southeast for Dinosaur and ran out of the storm into sunshine though the winds were strong and gusty. I could still see the dark angry-looking clouds to the north and after my stop at Dinosaur, when my GPS intended to send me due north again to catch I-80, I looked at my map, saw a mountain with a 9500 elevation along the route and said, oh, no, twice in one day is too much white knuckle driving. I turned back about 15 miles and took I-40 due east to Craig.

For 100 miles I drove in sunshine, with the black clouds on my left, and swirling dirt from the strong winds on my right. Just before getting to Craig, the sunshine ended and the dark clouds were overhead. Got into Craig just before dark, planning on a motel since the temperature was to go to the 20s. I stopped one place that looked like a motel, went into the office and asked if they had a room. The clerk stared at me for a minute and said, "This is a correctional facility; you don't want to stay here unless you have done something very bad" with a grin. I grinned back and got directions to a motel. Had a nice warm room and have been watching TV and studying the maps and figure I can probably get as far as Laramie today and will have to wait there for the storm to pass. Here in Colorado the chain rules are in effect through Vail and Loveland. I'm going north through the Basin to connect with I-80 west of Laramie. It doesn't look like any big peaks along the way north.