Rain --> Sleet --> Snow

had to get out of Gillette for the weekend, just had to.  so i had a slow morning with the dogs, sleeping in 'til 8am then drinking coffee 'til about 10:30.  we hit the park for a quick potty break and then loaded up the car.  --> South Dakota bound.  i had a couple of people tell me this week that i need to get over to the west and check out Buffalo, but each time i look at the Bighorns from the west side of town, they are still capped in snow.  i heard on Wyoming Public Radio that the snow drifts at the top of Sylvan Pass (the East entrance of Yellowstone) are 40 feet deep this year, usually 20-30 feet deep at this time of year, and that the WyDoT won't be able to get the plows through for a while yet.  i keep hoping that i'll be able to get over that way before i leave and head back to Salt Lake mid-June, but it's not looking too promising.  hope for warm weather.  so instead of Buffalo, i'm headed east again this weekend.

warm weather was not what the dogs and i got today.  we ran our Dugout Gulch 9-mile route south of Beulah, WY, and what started out as a slow drizzle at 45 degrees turned into freezing rain and then snow as we got up towards 6,000 feet.  as long as i kept moving it wasn't too chilly, but i noticed that my time was 5 to 10 minutes faster than the other two times we did this route, and i was shivering while changing clothes back at the car when i was finished.

i stopped in Spearfish, SD at the Safeway to get a few groceries and a hot tea at Starbucks (i'm up to 9 points on my member-card.  only 21 more points and i reach "Gold" status and am eligible for a free drink every 15 that i buy.  since i'm here 5 more weeks (!) and averaging a drink a day during the week, i'm thinking i will reach Gold Status before i get back to Salt Lake).  the grocery store was super-busy and the girl running the self-checkout was super-crazy and kept talking to me about her daughter who only wanted to sit with these "other" people at church and i was about to tell her that i could see why her daughter would want to get away from her, but i kept my trap shut (for once).

so now i'm in Lead and it's pretty cold and kinda snowy outside, but i can poach internet from Linda's neighbors here at the condo and get my blog update done, surf around, and download some videos/TV shows for viewing later in the week.  might get a movie too.  that way i don't use all of my GBs from my USB mobile broadband device.

photos today are from Dugout Gulch.  despite the snow, there were some really pretty spring wildflowers coming up.  the fluffies had fun, as usual, and i felt really good running today ~ feeling stronger the last few days.