Back On The Road Again

We finally got back on the road around lunch time on Thursday. We were only planning to drive a little over 300 kilometers to Casselton, on the eastern edge of North Dakota. I planned for us to stay at Governors Days Inn and RV Park again this year. They were so good to us last year I will always stay there if we are in the area.

To say we were on edge would be a very big understatement. Both of us were constantly checking the side mirror, hoping to see the shadow of the jeep.

The weather was overcast when we started out but it did clear out eventually. i kept thinking about what the gentleman said at the RV Dealership about all the snow they had east of us - the very direction we were heading. all of the snow that was in Martin and Harvey when we first arrived on Sunday was now gone and it felt like the temperatures had climbed a little above the freezing mark. As we heading east, though, we noticed growing amounts of snow in the fields that we passed.

As we continued east the amount of snow in the fields increased even more.

And then we came upon this beautiful winter scene..

At this point I was a little nervous, but the roads were clear, even if the ground was snow covered. Then we came to Valley City North Dakota. We were still driving on good roads, but there were snow banks on the side of the roads. Then, out of no where, the driving lane was covered with thick, chunky ice. It is only Rick's excellent driving skills that kept us out of trouble.

Rick pulled the video off of our dash cam from when we hit it:  ***warning you may hear some cussing***

https://youtu.be/QDhsNeKyVck?fbclid=IwAR39KFC4iArkvfd3SB1y1u1EH-TFbVaOJuaVwwhd89IjtfhQkwsR7mnAdUw

This is what the ice looked like up close:

This was the only time in almost 10,000 kms of driving that we saw any kind of accident and then it was just cars in the ditch.  (while watching the video you will see a tractor trailer jackknifed in the ditch on the other side of the road)

Luckily we were pretty close to our destination for the night and we needed the break. I think it was probably the most stressful drive we had ever had and it was only for 4 hours. Happily the jeep stayed with us for the day.

Our site at the RV park was covered in about 6 inches of snow and the forecast was for it to go to -11C overnight. Not the best conditions for our rig, but we made the best of it. It was time to check the weather for tomorrow and review our route for the day. At least we are 300 kilometers closer to home.