Our trip to Montana started out sketchy. This is the view out our front porch the day before we left and it continued to snow all night long. This may not be a shocking sight to most but in the Pacific Northwest, this equals a lot of snow. We can only imagine how much is at the house now since it was dark when we left and this was before the "big" storm!
Since we left our home at 5:52 am (yawn!) it was a bit nerve-wracking. We needed chains on the van just to get out of the driveway and down the hill. Jim was able to take them off about 6 miles from the house and just take it slow the rest of the way. We got to Gresham, OR - only about 25 miles from our house and the wind started to howl. We also saw the big rigs lined up and chaining up on the side of the road under the first warning sign about hazardous travel. At that, we decided to stop in Troutdale, grab a back-up pair of chains (you can never be too prepared) and wait for it to get a bit lighter before we hit the restricted travel areas... that was a smart choice.Multnomah Falls was flowing but slowly and all the other falls around it, through the gorge, were frozen.
Hummm, thanks for the warning... ICE.
This is what I-84 looked like just outside Cascade Locks... 30 mph was pretty much the top speed.
The kids thought the frozen waterfalls through the gorge were super cool.
Look! The sun did try to come out. If you've never seen the size of these wind turbines, each of the blades is longer than an extra-long tractor trailer!
Some mule deer on the side of the freeway.
Rylan was pleased as punch to see all the trains through the gorge but sadly, he wouldn't sleep for fear of missing some. 
... and then it turned into a game where I had to take a picture of the trains we saw.
Ummm, burrr. This was mid-day in eastern Washington... with the sun shining!
The colors as we approached Spokane were really cool.
Shortly after Spokane, the sun went down. For those of you who know this route... remember we left the house at 5:52 am. We arrived in Missoula, MT at a little after 9:00 pm their time. That adds up to 14 hours in the car. The trip usually takes us 8 hours!
Look! The sun did try to come out. If you've never seen the size of these wind turbines, each of the blades is longer than an extra-long tractor trailer!
Some mule deer on the side of the freeway.
Rylan was pleased as punch to see all the trains through the gorge but sadly, he wouldn't sleep for fear of missing some. 
... and then it turned into a game where I had to take a picture of the trains we saw. Ummm, burrr. This was mid-day in eastern Washington... with the sun shining!The colors as we approached Spokane were really cool.
Shortly after Spokane, the sun went down. For those of you who know this route... remember we left the house at 5:52 am. We arrived in Missoula, MT at a little after 9:00 pm their time. That adds up to 14 hours in the car. The trip usually takes us 8 hours!Needless to say, once we got there we had a very tired Jim and a very happy Carson. (Jim's cousins' 8 1/2 year old son)
This is the re-cap of our first leg of our trip. It was a nervous trip but the kids did great when they needed to. We tried to keep away from the crazy drivers and were very thankful to make it in one piece especially since we came up on 3 vehicles that had slammed guard-rails and spun across the road mere minutes before we drove by. Though it was a cold, snowy trip, the places that we were most nervous about weren't nearly that big a deal. It's funny, once you get on the other side of the Cascades, the snow issue is a whole different ball game. When we were driving around Missoula we didn't even hardly think about the fact that the streets weren't plowed!
This is the re-cap of our first leg of our trip. It was a nervous trip but the kids did great when they needed to. We tried to keep away from the crazy drivers and were very thankful to make it in one piece especially since we came up on 3 vehicles that had slammed guard-rails and spun across the road mere minutes before we drove by. Though it was a cold, snowy trip, the places that we were most nervous about weren't nearly that big a deal. It's funny, once you get on the other side of the Cascades, the snow issue is a whole different ball game. When we were driving around Missoula we didn't even hardly think about the fact that the streets weren't plowed!
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