[You may view a map of Grand Teton National Park in PDF format.]

There was dull light through the solid cloud layer and light snow was falling when I got out of bed. It was 32°F (0°C). Had my normal breakfast and worked up a blog entry. A cow moose was feeding in the campground. Prepped the RV to move, then cleaned off the snow from the RV and the Jeep. We left at 9:36 in the Jeep with J driving.

We circled the campground loop to look for the cow moose because it was bright enough to photograph now, and she was gone. We returned to the RV, and left at 9:44 with me in the RV and J in the Jeep.

We parked the RV just before reaching US-89, and left in the Jeep at 9:52 with J driving.

We went south across the Gros Ventre River looking for moose, then turned around and headed north. The clouds got thicker and the snow started falling faster, all of which really reduced the light level, so we turned around and went back to the RV. We hooked up the Jeep to tow, then left at 10:17 and headed south.

We exited Grand Teton National Park at 10:21, and the snow had stopped. The sun came out as we were entering Jackson at 10:28.

We stopped at the Maverik gas station to load up the RV ($2.559/gal). We left at 10:47 and continued heading south.

I listened to an episode of Car Talk. Had Clif Bars for lunch.

We stopped at the Flying J truck stop in Rock Springs at 2:09 to get 17 gallons of gas ($2.319/gal) in the RV to hold us over until we reach even cheaper gas in Laramie. We left at 2:29 on I-80 E, and we had a nice tailwind.

I listened to another episode of Car Talk. It started snowing at 4:10 about 13 miles (21km) west of Rawlins. Snow started to lay on the road by 5:05. We entered blizzard conditions around 5:15 and slowed to 25-35 mph (40-50kph). The wiper blades started to ice up, and by 5:30, the far end of mine had two large patches of ice that kept most of the rubber away from the windshield. I had a strip that was about 1.5 inches (4cm) wide down at the bottom of the wiper blade path that was clear — looking through the rest of the windshield was like looking at an Impressionist painting — don't try this at home. :) J's wiper blade didn't ice up as much as mine, so she had a fairly good view of the road. A large SUV had spun out off the right shoulder, a FedEx tractor-trailer was spinning its wheels as it was trying to exit at a rest area, and a small SUV was in the median from the westbound lanes. The RV just kept on going with no problems — even on our three rear tires with not much tread left on them. :) We resumed 55 mph (89kph) around 5:50. I coud see pretty well again through the windshield by 6:20 after the precipitation had stopped and the wind had blown most of the remaining water away.

We stopped at Albertson's in Laramie at 6:33 to load up the RV with gas ($2.149/gal), and I discovered that we lost our left-rear hubcap. :( The icicles growing radially from the front wheel lugs were fascinating! J started making dinner while I was fueling. We left around 6:40.

We reached WalMart around 6:45. I went outside to change the wiper blades from the ones we've been using since we bought the RV used in May 2008 to some "winter" blades that the previous owner had given us and that we hadn't used before. (The old wipers hadn't been very good with just rain for a while either, so it was time to try something different.) The wind was blowing like crazy, and it was 20°F (-7°C) when I came back in.

We had a wonderful dinner at 7:30 of J's chicken Marsala, angel-hair pasta, and cooked zucchini. It was most tasty!

After dinner, I showered, then J showered, then I did the dishes. I processed images for the next blog entry. J discovered that it was snowing through the driver's-side living-room window! The stiff wind was blowing right at the window, and the seal between the sliding pane and the fixed pane was leaking, and the inside of the window behind the shades was filled with snow! We removed the snow then I opened and shut the sliding pane, and that seemed to stop the snow. It was 12°F (-11°C) when we went to bed at 10:20.