First off yes, I changed the name of my blog. I've been thinking about it recently because I won't be in Big Sky Country forever and even now my adventures aren't always in Montana. I felt this would be an appropriate post to change the name of the blog for just because I drove so many miles for this most recent adventure so let's get to it...
In the title when I say "joy ride" that is complete sarcasm. It should be titled "1,090 mile ride from hell that caused me more stress, sadness, and anger than any other drive in my life." So what happened you ask? Here goes...
My news station is a combined market. Meaning two cities combine to form one news market. So Butte and Bozeman are together, however, we have separate nightly newscasts. Our morning show is a combined show that comes out of Bozeman and up until now our weekend show has come out of a totally different market, Billings. Now our market is getting their own weekend show and it will be coming out of Bozeman. Butte stories are always fed over to air on the morning show since it is a combined market and the same will be done for the weekend show. The problem, we don't have anyone in Butte who works weekends. So until we get some extra help I'll be working a lovely seven days a week work schedule to make sure that Butte news is represented in the new weekend show. In lieu of this news I asked if I could leave early on Friday to drive to Bismarck and see my boyfriend since who knows when I would have another weekend off and be able to do that. I got the necessary approval. I had my car checked out and checked the weather prior to the drive. Weather.com told me the worst I would run into would be some flurries, flurries I can handle.
Flurries turned into freak out of nowhere Blizzard over in Eastern North Dakota. Luckily, I wasn't there yet so didn't get stuck in that. I was in Eastern Montana when my boyfriend called to tell me that I-94 from Dickinson to Bismarck had been closed. (For those who don't know, I have to drive that stretch to get to Bismarck since Dickinson is West of Bismarck) I pulled off the interstate at some random exit where all there was was some scary looking gas station. He told me he'd call me back while I was checking the weather over there on my blackberry. When he called back we decided I would keep going because the meteorologists at his station were saying that this storm was leaving and would be diminishing as the day went on and I wouldn't get there til 11 p.m. anyways so it should be gone by then. I pulled back onto the interstate and continued to head east. About two hours later into my drive my boyfriend tells me that a no travel advisory had been issued for Bismarck. I asked if I should turn around he talked to another meteorologist and told me to keep going saying if the road didn't open tonight it would be open by Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Knowing this we were both thinking that even if I had to spend Friday night in a hotel and not reach Bismarck til 10 a.m. on Saturday it was better to see each other for one day and one night then not at all. I kept on trucking and kept on asking if the road was open yet only to be met with a depressing no. Finally when I was two hours away I decided I needed to stop and buy a toothbrush because it looked like I'd be spending the night in a hotel and I keep a toothbrush in Bismarck so I hadn't packed one. Literally the minute I got out of the gas station with my newly purchased toothbrush my boyfriend told me that the road would definitely not be opening that night. Ok, time to find a hotel in Dickinson. Well turns out that was impossible, they were all booked. Luckily my boyfriend's news station has a Dickinson bureau reporter who said I could crash with him and my roommate has a friend in Dickinson who also offered to let me crash. I felt extremely lucky to have options of where to stay in such a situation. I ended up staying with the reporter and his girl friend just since they had been contacted and offered first. They were both super nice people (I had never met them before) and I'm super grateful they let me stay.
Needless to say I didn't sleep much on their couch. Not through any fault of the couch's either. I was super stressed and freaking out over the situation. In my mind I just kept thinking what if this road doesn't open? But still thinking oh no it will I'll be ok. Boy was I wrong. 7 a.m. I-94 was still closed and at 8 a.m. and at 9 a.m. and at 10 a.m. and at 11 a.m. at that point my boyfriend and the Dickinson reporter were both making phone calls trying to get any idea of when I-94 would be open again. Through the phone calls we learned that no one had a clue when it would re open but it wouldn't be anytime soon. At this point the weather was fine and at least on my drive it had never not been fine. The picture attached to this blog I took during my drive. It was clear skies and roads for me the entire time. Anyways, the problem with I-94 was that 800 motorists were stranded on it and it was closed because they had to clean off all those vehicles. Ughhhhh is basically what I was thinking when I learned this. My options now were take an alternate route or drive 8 hours back to Butte. The alternate route would take over three hours and if I could take 94 it would only take me about an hour to get to Bismarck. But I thought oh well at least I would get there. Well turns out that was just too risky. According to the ND department of transportation the first half of the alternate route would be fine but the closer to Bismarck I got the road was just continuous ice, may be down to one lane because of snow drifts, and could even become impassable due to blowing snow. Alternate route was out. Only option left was head back to Butte. I couldn't sit and wait for an interstate to open that my not for days and if I was going to drive the 8 hours back to Butte I wanted it to be mostly in daylight.
I went to Walmart to get some supplies for the drive back and as I was getting on the interstate to head west and start the journey home my eyes blurred by tears I noticed cars heading east. They're going east! Maybe the road is open or they are just getting through somehow. Suddenly there was hope! I got off at the next exit and turned around to head east as well. My hope was short lived a couple exits later I saw the line of semi trucks and cars just waiting to be allowed on I-94 and I saw the gate in front of me across the road that said "road closed" and the cop car sitting behind it. I followed the other cars that had been heading east and exited the interstate only to get back on it to again head west and start the journey home a second time. Depression set in and I felt horrible. A quote from "Blind your Ponies" best describes my feelings, "inside a horrendous storm assailed his vitals. He had the sensation of being so close he could touch it and yet being so far." I'm obviously a she but you get my drift.
I did get back to Butte just as the sun had finished setting and walking into my house when I felt I was supposed to be in Bismarck was one of the saddest, most angering moments. I drove 545 miles to Dickinson and was less than 100 miles from seeing my boyfriend. I just couldn't cross those last miles to get to him I had to turn around and drive 545 miles back in less than 24 hours since I had started the journey to North Dakota. I know there's an upside that I'm safe, he's safe, everyone I know is safe and much worse things can happen and are happening every day. I have to put it in perspective and realize this sucks but it's not that bad.
By the way if you'd like to learn more about the closure of I-94 and the 800 motorists stranded it has become a national story but here is KFYR's coverage
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