We made to our destination and took around 23 hours to do it. Twenty three hours together in the truck with no way to get away from each other was far more pleasant than we had anticipated. Retirement will suit us fine.
We left the Seattle area early Thursday morning and drove to Billings Montana before looking for a room. Not a good plan. I didn't make reservations in Billings because frankly I wasn't convinced we would make it that far on the first day. Huge error in judgment. We visited three hotels before finding one with a vacancy.
The second day we had no choice but to make it the rest of the way to Watertown. We decide to take route 212 from Billings south across the corner of Wyoming and into South Dakota. We passed thru several Indian nations.
As we traveled east we about weather warnings throughout the area. About half way to Watertown the skies began to change and there was an eerie overcast. We continued to drive along 212 and it became apparent that this was one long road that just kept going. We reached the Missouri River and the radio was discussing severe weather warnings in the Watertown area. Thunder, lightning, hail, high winds, and tornado warnings were in effect. The winds were blowing so hard that I had difficulty opening the door on the truck to step outside. We continued on across the Missouri River and saw good size white caps. Pity the poor people on the river when this storm hit. As we passed the boat launch we noticed four trucks with empty trailers.
As we approach Watertown we heard more reports of damage. Trees down, power lost, sewer system no working due to power loss, power lines down and warnings to stay home. Too late we were almost there. We entered town and drove through a dark Watertown to our motel. They were without power but checked us in and got us to our room. We had a cooler full of food in the truck so we made sandwiches, had some fruit, and munched on goodies before turning in. The power returned a couple hours later but we were too tired to care.
We enjoyed the day visiting with some of our family as they prepared for a wedding at three. We went to the wedding and the reception and had a great time. We have a big get together this afternoon and then back to our room, sleep and tomorrow we hit the road again.
Glad you arrived safely and enjoyed your family event. My husband and I often debate the need to reserve a room ahead of time. Usually we don't have a problem with finding a room, but one disastrous trip we ended up driving an extra four hours due to having no reservation. Now we always remember that trip, and usually err on the side of having a booked room.
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