Two Brothers, Two Coasts: Driving Vancouver to New York

Losing Control on Interstate 90

We had left Yellowstone on a high. I don’t know if you could tell from my last post, but we weren’t massive fans of the place. We drove out the North East entrance of the park, past high rolling hills with a dusting of snow that reminded me of Brecon Beacons in Wales in winter, and on towards the Beartooth Highway. We expected rolling prairie highways as we came out of the mountains but were soon faced with a solid climb.

Soon the snow started to accumulate around us and before we could adjust to the dazzle of the snow the piles on either side of the road were higher than the car. We continued to climb until we hit the summit, which is marked by a small wooden sign and thick blanketing of snow at 10,578ft, it was our highest point of the trip.

Ted fancied driving the descent, which is steep switchback roads with sheer drops down into the mouth of the mountains, making for a fun, scenic and terrifying drive down.

Then we hit the Montana highways we expected. We stopped off in Billings for a quick lunch and set off as the weather seemed to be turning towards the stormy. Heading on the Interstate 90 East out of Billings we were driving into black, the gathering clouds forming a dark blanket up ahead as huge forks of lightening flashed on the horizon.

Teenage Dreams by Katy Perry started playing on the radio as I drove into the heart of the storm, I started hitting the steering wheel with my thumb to the beat of the song when it felt like someone had cut a cord under the dashboard and the wheel wasn’t responding to my turns. We had started to aquaplane and I lost all control, the car veering wildly from side to side before turning a full 180 degrees so that we were looking back down the empty highway. The car slid off the road backwards into a ditch and we came to a full stop.

I looked over and thumped Ted in the chest and said that we were alright as the rain hammered down and the water started streaming down the slope to my right, pooling quickly around the car. We were in a foreign country and didn’t know what to do, so I rang 911 and they sent out a highway officer and a recovery truck to pull us out.

Zach the recovery guy was chewing tobacco and took two hours to get us out of the thick mud, but he worked with a smile and let us off a few charges due to being a long way from home. We headed back into Billings for a good night’s sleep before getting back on the horse the next day.

Next Stop: Rapid City, South Dakota