…Desert, Here We Come

Where I grew up, it was really sunny and dry. In fact, it hardly ever rains. So for us to take a drive up to Yellow Stone in the winter was a very daunting experience. In fact, it scared the crap out of me. What happened when we hit the slick ice, the ice gets too slippery and we can’t even go up the hill? Why do people snow shovel anyway? How do you put on tire chains? Where do you buy tire chains? I had to figure all of these out before we took the trip. For anyone that knows me knows that I’m an over planner.

So, I read and I studied, I studied and I read, and I put together what people in the know really suggested was important. The truth is that in big SUVs like the one I’m driving, you can leave someone into complacency and thinking that nothing is going to happen. But the truth is that people do get stranded in snow storms, and they can actually die because they’re unprepared.

First thing I learned is that it doesn’t take too many layers of high quality clothing to stay warm even in the most cold of conditions. If you have on a pair of Ugg boots, a good pair of socks, two layers of high quality thermal underwear, a sleeveless vest, a pair of snowpants over it, a couple layers of thermal underwear on top, and a nice thick snowboarding jacket with a hood, provided you’re inside of a car and away from the wind, you can survive in practically any temperature that you’re going to get in North America. I suppose if you have to sit there day after day, it might eventually get cold, but from my experience, that was plenty of clothes. Oh by the way, don’t forget a pair of thick gloves. I had a thinner pair of snowboarding gloves, and that was one of the only parts of my body that did get cold when it got really cold and windy outside in Aspen. We learned that that’s what glove liners are for, and it’s also what thicker gloves are for. And don’t forget the hand warmers, too! My wife loved the hand warmers. She had them shoved in every possible pocket and place on her entire body.

So, what do you need to bring in the car? Well, an ice scraper. I didn’t really get what it was for, until I realized that after you’re driving for awhile, the snow gets in your windshield. It melts a little because your car is a bit warmer and then, it freezes again and starts to form sheets of ice on your windshield. If you didn’t stop for awhile, it can form a nice ¼ - ½ inch thick layer of ice on the windshield. And if you turn on the windshield wipers and they’re locked in there, they can actually break off. So, an ice scraper, which is $5-$10 at most gas stations in any wintery area, will scrape the ice right off. Another thing to carry is antifreeze windshield wiper fluid, which is a special windshield wiper fluid that they sell by the gallon in every gas station in the cold areas. I never quite understood exactly how you’re supposed to use it except anywhere where the ice had built up too much. Just pour it on and watch the ice dissolve away. Then, I’d have to get an ice scraper and knock out the big chunks. I also read that you’re supposed to bring a snow shovel, so I kept looking; but by the time the trip ended, I was never able to buy one.

Being the overpacker that I am, I also brought enough power bars with me that they’d last a week. I also brought along a whistle and a compass. The compass is, God forbid, if you ever lose your way and you’re not supposed to leave your car or if you ever ended up separated from your car and didn’t know where to go, you got a compass to let you know. The whistle’s there so other people can find you. We also had a couple of blankets in the car - emergency blankets - and they’re supposed to reflect heat back on you in an emergency. We never really had a chance to use them.

I also brought enough food that would’ve lasted us at least three or four days in an emergency. The funny story about the food was that I bought these wonderful zone bars that I really liked. A few weeks after the trip, my wife says to me,

“Do you still have any of those zone bars?”

And I said, “Oh yeah!”

She asked, “Are they the chocolate, peanut butter ones?”

I say, “Yeah, we’ve got those. Do you want one?”

And she said, “No, but we got a letter from Costco about them.”

I said, “Really?” And I went and read the letter, which said that the bars had been re-called because of the possibility of Salmonella poisoning. I thought this was rather funny because I looked and found that I’d already eaten 1 ½ cases of them. Luckily, nothing had happened.

One of the other things that I read about that was a really good idea was to bring along little pea-like candles or some other tiny of candle that you can burn, along with putting it in into a coffee can. I don’t know how safe it is to burn candles inside of a car when the windows are up, but if you do get stuck in a car in the middle of winter, you are going to want some sort of a heat source.

One thing I never expected or worried about was the fact that the water bottles freeze when it gets that cold. We would (???) up in the car and realize that our case of water bottles had all frozen until all the water bottles had frozen shut. In fact, keeping the water bottles from freezing is a whole other blog.