Started the day in Cheyenne and made it up to Alpine, but it wasn’t easy. No problem getting on the interstate. It turns out the exit was at the intersection of I80 and I25. However, not long after I got on I80 my side narrowed down to one lane due to construction. In fact, about the first 50 miles was intermittent construction. I was looking at the time and wondering if I was going to have to add some hours to my estimate. That did clear up, as well as the clouds. There were basically two parts to today’s travels. The first part (about 250 miles) was straight down I80; the second part (about 200 miles total) on a two lane US highway.
I decided to get gas around lunchtime to make sure I had enough gas to make It to Alpine. This was still on I80 a good 30 minutes or so before the move the two-lane road. It turned out I didn’t need to worry. The shift to the US highway occurs at a fairly significant town/city and there were plenty of services there.
After lunch I got back on the road. Although there had been some hills, the scenery was mainly scrubland with some wonderful clouds stacking up toward the horizon. There also seemed to be the threat of rain on the horizon.
I did see something rather unique as we headed into the hills. Along the road at one point there seemed to be a pointless arch across the road. However, as I got closer I realized that the upper surface of the arch as more grassland. The arch was intended to allow cows to cross the road without getting hit. I didn’t get a picture of the first arch, but had my camera ready when a second arch appeared.
As the road headed into the hills, the clouds got closer and closer. Finally, it started to rain. However, the first rain started has the road went over a hill, first as a light rain but climaxing with enough water that I had to turn on my lights and make sure I knew how far away the car in front of me really was. However, the rain stopped immediately after hitting the summit. The rain got much more intense as I got into the actual mountain pass. The speed limit went down from 75 to 65 and even lower in some sections. The rain varied in intensity and stopped at one point just as I crested the summit. There were also several stretches with no way to pass anyone. Fortunately, there wasn’t that much traffic.
The scenery by this point was lush pine forest. A river was flowing right next to the road at several points. The clouds were so thick that the headlights were necessary. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to see any sun at all until I hit Montana tomorrow.
Needless to say I did make it to my hotel without incident. While it did rain once I got there, it was a very light rain that caused no problems.
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