Heart Attack and White Outs

 Yesterday we got up to light flurries mixed with rain.  We still had decent winds, but the weather man said it was going to get to 49* and be a little wet.  Up north in Rapid City it had some flurries, but was also supposed to warm up.  

We headed up the driveway from our Harvest Host and noticed the neighbors lost part of their barn roof.  Our hosts sign would’ve blown over if it wasn’t for a tree holding it up. A mile down the road several telephone poles had sheared off.  This should’ve been our sign.  

At Highway 71 we pointed north and had a NNW wind with a few sideways flakes.  As we got a few miles north, all the cows at the farms were bunched up and facing away from the wind and snow.  At about 10 miles in, we knew it was bad and decided we would just take it slow to Crawford and park it.  Slow as in 20-25 mph.  

Conditions worsened and we did not have anywhere to turn around.  We saw a flipped over cargo trailer with no truck or anyone around.  We also passed a semi stuck on a hill.  At one point with visibility around a truck length we pulled over where a tree was semi blocking the wind.  It was on a slight uphill and not the best move.  We got out of there after a bit of backing up.  I was already in 4x4 and honestly was a bit nervous.  The winds had really picked up and at one point the trailer swung over to the passenger side as we were driving forward.  

We were about 26 miles into 76 when we found a ranch road to stop and back into.  A snow plow went by with a few rigs behind it, headed south.  After debating a few minutes with no cell service, we decided to head back south behind the plow.  After a nail biting, high heart rate, high blood pressure drive, we made it out of the blizzard.  This whole ordeal took over two and a half hours.  Once back in town, Hwy 71 was shut down and there were blizzard warnings on the interwebs.  We cancelled our stay in Rapid City.  The worker at the KOA said they had horizontal snow with sustained 40mph winds.  

Everything was coated in snow and ice.  One of the kayaks blew into the rocket box, luckily it didn’t come off.  We stopped and filled up, had some breakfast, went to Walmart and did laundry.  We backtracked a bit and ended up staying at the mom and pop campground we stopped at Friday.  For me, it took hours for my heart rate and BP to come down.  It got up in the 140’s.  It’s stressful towing your home through weather like that.

 We should’ve turned around as soon as the snow started picking up.  When we were having our late breakfast, a person we met told us part of the airport lost its roof and they had an unconfirmed gust at 100.  

The winds stayed steady all day at 30-40 and gusting to 60.  It was a long day and we may be here one more due to it being windy again today.  I let the dogs out last night and Chimney Rock was lit up.  My phone definitely did not do it justice.  We also want to note how important it is to have the right vehicle to pull your trailer.  We see a lot of rigs that are way too small to do the job.