Jan 4th

Day 2 on the road to a happy place, AJ.
Left Claresholm with snow falling where yesterday there was none, now there was lots.  The roads and falling snow were with us all the way to Lethbridge where the skies cleared.  It was so much better to see the icy roads with, was that from Red Riding Hood?  Had our last coffee at Tim Horton's in Lethbridge and drove the ice bound roads to the border at Coutts.  The highlight of the day occurred there, where we liberated 2 bottles of Scotland's finest, produced by the legendary Macallan distilleries.
  Onward through the slowest border crossing in recent memory to Montana.  At first the roads were much improved, but snow and icy roads from Shelby south.  A stop for lunch at Great Falls, our regular fuel stop at Flying J and back on the road.  I'm sure this icy road lament is starting to sound old, but a newer pick up 4x4 went flying past us and promptly entered the snow covered median.  The only good thing was that the amount of snow was what we would call a light dusting, about 6 or 8 inches deep.  The last I saw of him, he was still trying to drive out.  Gee we drive that much on city streets and never give it a second thought.  We drove by at about 40 mph in our little 2 wheel drive Malibu and I am sure I saw him shaking his head in awe.  We were like the little engine that could.  I told you I was a good driver, LOL.  It was pretty miserable roads until we got to Butte, where suddenly the roads were clear and dry with very little snow in the ditches.  Set the cruise control on 75mph and made it all the way to Pocatello, where there is NO snow.  For all you GP'ers send them some, they could use it.  That was about 1,030 km's today.
  Checked in to the Best Western and supper was Appleby's tonight, we can walk to it from the hotel.  We are officially falling in to our pattern, as we have done this for at least four years in a row now.  Yes Marg ordered the same thing as the prior 3 years and I had 2 beers with supper as usual.  I joked about impaired walking back to the hotel and Marg said she would be the DW, designated walker. 
  Things are looking much better for the trip to St George tomorrow.  The weather is chilly here, about minus 5C, but the forecast for tomorrow will see most of the day above the freezing mark. 
  To all our Northern Alberta family and friends -- Stay warm and safe, the weather will change there too.  Will try to get my co-pilot to get some pics for the blog tomorrow.