Whew, what wind...

Thank you for praying for me and the girls, and my aches while driving! The Lord was truly protecting us today. The wind was especially strong today, so I didn't do much snacking, as I had to keep both hands on the wheel as I drove. The girls were super-well behaved, and didn't seem to mind that I couldn't play the roll of flight stewardess today.

We stopped for lunch when Scott called around 12:45pm. We all had a great talk with him, it is tough to know he is back on the ship after a few days onshore. I will miss the near daily phone calls. At this point there was over half of a tank of gas in the truck, so I figured that we would stop for gas in a few hours. I didn't account for the wind, and how that would affect my gas mileage.

So, somewhere West of Billings, MT, my fuel light goes on - OK, I have 3 gallons left. That should get me about 30 miles with the wind I tell myself. I quickly get the GPS to find the closest gas station - 20 miles away. Hmmm. Close, but possible. I tell the girls that we are going to have to stop for gas, so to get ready for a pit stop.

Well, I guess that I was actually getting only 5 miles to the gallon with the strong headwind we had on the road today, because 4.4 miles from our exit I lose all power to the truck. No power brakes, no power steering, and absolutely NO gas. Oops.

Good Sam Emergency Roadside Assistance to the rescue. Fortunately, I actually had a decent cell signal, and didn't even have to get out of the car to call. (We had been able to coast to the shoulder and were as safe as possible at the moment.) As anyone who has tried to talk to me in the past few days knows, the cell strength has been very spotty along I-90. Most of the time I only get 1-2 minutes until my call gets dropped. So, the Lord worked that situation as well.

Good Sam told me it would take about 90 minutes for a tow truck with fuel to arrive, so the girls and I settled in for a long wait. In reality, it only took about 40 minutes for Seth to arrive with 5 gallons of gas. After a few minutes of paperwork, we were on the road again. I made it safely down the road 4.4 miles to the exit and another mile to the gas station. I think I'll be looking for a small gas can to carry in the truck, as fuel isn't readily available out here in Southern Montana!

We still made it to our campground by 7pm, and the women at the desk were super helpful. Lynelle will tell the girls and I all about the best places to visit in Yellowstone, and she even knows where we can spot some grizzlies and wolves. How cool!!! We saw a ton of deer as we drove south on 89 toward Yellowstone. We've seen so many new animals on this trip, I think our favorite were the prairie dogs we saw yesterday, and the flicker-tails we saw in De Smet. Who knows what the Lord will bring across our path over the next few days?