D day +2 - ouch!

Got up this morning and it was cold and windy.  Carol found another app called "Weather Route" which is really handy.  You tell it where you want to go, and it gives you the weather conditions all along the route including road advisories.

Our whole route was forecast to have 40+ mph winds, directly 90 degrees from the side, naturally, with gusts to 65.  As we were driving down I-25 from Fort Collins to I-70 in Denver, there were many warning signs for trucks and high profile vehicles warning them about the wind.

We were making pretty good time until about 40 miles from Burlington.  All of a sudden, Waze did it again!  It changed the route but this time I saw the warning.  I-70 was closed at Burlington to the Kansas border.

Sure enough, as we came into Burlington, I could see the lineup of vehicles stopped on the road about a mile ahead.  So we decided to get off and get lunch.  We chose McDonalds because it was close and I knew it had free WiFi.  Plus it is what she wanted.

While in there, others came in to plan their alternates.  We had lunch and then dug out the maps.  I thought I had found an alternative way to go but it would have changed our destination from Topeka to Wichita.  We had driven almost 590 miles the previous two days, so our plan was for two legs of 550 miles and then a 5th leg of just over 100 miles into Red Bay.

Well, that plan died yesterday when we went to Fort Collins.  Now we have two legs of 600 miles each instead of two 550s.  And if we had to go on the alternate, it would have been worse both in time and distance.

Fortunately, just before we were done with our meal and planning, we heard that the road had reopened.  So we filled up with gas just in case and got on it.

We saw what the warning to high profile vehicles and trucks meant first-hand.  In the space of about 20 miles, I must have see 20 semi trucks flipped over, 3 or 4 motor homes cattywampus to the road, and even a boat trailer flipped on its side with the boat still on the trailer.  I wish I could have gotten some pics, but traffic was heavy and I needed to watch where I was going.

We had the 65mph winds for most of the day.  We also had a lot of blowing snow and even one dust storm which brought visibility to just about zero.  Fortunately, it only lasted for a quarter-mile or so,  A real relief to get clear of it.

We stopped at several rest areas during the day.  All were very windy and cold.  Temps were about 32 most of the way, and with the wind chill, well, let's just say it was really cold!
I will attach a picture of the snow at one of the rest areas we stopped at.  It may not look like much, but it was blowing all over and it was COLD!

Unless I was going SE, I had to stay below 70 just to keep the car steady.  SE I could get to 75 before I felt the steering get too loose.  But we made good time getting to Topeka by about 7:45.  

We decided to eat our normal sandwiches for dinner since we ate out for lunch.  We are both too tired to really enjoy another meal out.  Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!  We head to Jackson MS, another 600 miles away!