I don't don't drive mine in the winter any more either, haven't in 16, or 18 years. I do still have to take it to the car wash before it is put under wraps, but I'd like it to be a little warmer for that trip. I pushed my luck too far and the car got caught out in freezing rain and wet snow, which turned to solid ice when unseasonably cold temperatures hit. One nice thing about when it gets this cold is that once you get your vehicle washed, it stays clean.

two feet of snow here in Montana but if the rodes clear off and we have a nice day I would still take it out

Back in the late '70's we took a family trip to Florida, Disney World, at Christmas time, and we went by car. It was about a week of driving each direction, and we did go through some snow in Georgia on the way back. We were probably the only car around with snow tires and I remember Dad blowing by semis on the Interstate, even in the snow covered left lane. Just typical winter conditions in the Canadian prairies. We confused some gas station attendants in the south with the block heater cord sticking out the grill at the front.

Some of the most desolate landscape I've ever seen was in Montana. When we were in Denver on the way home my parents felt we should drive straight through to get home, rather than the two days originally planned. My older brother could drive, so there were three drivers, so they felt a twenty hour stretch was reasonable. We took a short cut off the Interstate to bypass Billings and headed cross country to Miles City. It really seemed the middle of no where and freaking cold. The heater quit and we were able to get it fixed in Miles City late in the evening. It is pretty wide open prairie and ranch land from there north and around 3 in the morning the car started bucking and wouldn't run past idle. The garage where the heater was repaired had been hosing down the floor at the end of the day and extra humidity had caused condensation to form in the fuel lines. Thankfully a bottle of gas line antifreeze got us back on our way because there was nothing, and nobody around for a long long way. This was long before cell phones and a lot of people might find it hard to imagine that people still made it around at 40 below, in the middle of the night, in the middle of no where. The only thing better might have been if the story was about a trip in a Galaxie, but we made that trip in a 1977 Olds 98 Regency.

I've been through western Montana, too, so I've experienced the contrast in the landscape. People often bash southern Saskatchewan for being flat and barren, with nothing and nobody around. The Canadian prairies seemed to be more cultivated, less arid than norther-eastern Montana and North Dakota, so there are grid roads and farmsteads all over the place. At one time there was a family just about every quarter section, but that was a long time ago. When you get to the dry ranch land, that is when things get lonely.