Harvey's Secret Voyage: The Holiday Season!

So...last update was two days before my birthday. We had just gone to get our family photo with Santa for the local Humane Society. Here is the Harvey clan:

All was going superb. Durango was as fun as ever, I was running about 6x / week, all was good

Then it went to heck

First, we got snowed in for a day as Durango got hit with 14+ inches. Hud loved it

Next, my birthday. After we got plowed out in the late afternoon we went into town for a few things. Sadly we didn't make it up our pretty steep hill in 4WD. After the 3rd try fell just short, we decided to back down the hill and put the chains on. Unfortunately the car ended up off the road in the snow, stuck. An hour later the guy who plowed our rural road came by with a tow rope and got us out. After he plowed more we made it up. I was going to run down the hill and toss him a tip...but my wallet was now MIA, probably buried under a few feet of snow

The next day was better but not great - driving 10 hours to the Father-in-Law in Utah. Generally it was ok...but once we got through Moab it was freezing (as low as -4 Fahrenheit) and when it's dark in rural Utah, you can't see much. The worst stretch was the curvy mountain pass Soldier Summit in Utah. Maureen was driving so I just dozed off and assumed all would be good or we'd be dead, not much I could do. Still, the scenery was awesome

The first few hours was in Colorado and driving was done at below the speed limit

Utah is spectacular

Moab should be on our post-Christmas itinerary

The visit in Utah was cool, complete with a birthday cake from her sister. The next day we were off to Jackson Hole. Much easier drive, although there was a long stretch with no one else and no cell coverage through national forest in Idaho

This was leaving Salt Lake area

Entering the National Forest in Idaho

Grumpus was impressed

Entering Wyoming

So far not bad here in Jackson Hole but not enough snow to warrant spending $200 on skiing - limited runs and patchy. What a disappointment. The town of Jackson is nice, good coffee at the bagel shop (and good art)

Saturday we drove through an Elk Reserve...saw Big Horn Sheep