Welcome to Montana?

A snow storm in late May. I was looking north from I-90 between Billings and Livingston.

This photo was taken a few days later. These are the Crazy Mountains...honest, that's their name!

Another photo of the Crazy Mountains. 

I was on Hiway 89, headed south out of Clyde Park. I'm pretty sure these are the Absaroka Mountains. 

You know, I've lived in tornado alley practically all my life but had to go to Montana to experience one of the worst storms I've ever been in. After leaving South Dakota, I took I-90 West thru Wyoming and then into Montana. Shortly afterwards, and I'm talking less than an hour after crossing the Montana line, I noticed two storms that appeared to be headed my direction. At that point, I-90 runs pretty much north and south and one of the storms was directly to the west and the other was to the northwest. I could see the green skies in both storms and I knew what that meant....hail....or maybe I should say HAIL!!! When I heard that first "ping" on my truck, I got that sick feeling inside and knew I was in for it. Soon after the first ping, I heard another ping, then another and another. After that, the pings turned into bangs, then more bangs and then too many bangs to count. To be honest with you, I don't know how large the hailstones were. I don't know if I was totally focused on driving or if I closed my eyes but I did not see the hailstones. I do remember seeing an overpass some distance ahead of me and all I could think of was making it to that point. I finally made it to the overpass and tried to hide as much of my truck and trailer as possible underneath it. Once the hail stopped, the interstate was completely covered with hailstones. I felt it was safe to continue so I started driving again and soon regretted it. I don't know for certain but I think there may have been a tornado, or at least the beginnings of one, in the storm. The winds were intense and were blowing west to east but soon afterwards they reversed and were blowing east to west. The low clouds were whipping across the interstate ahead of me. This time I know for sure that my eyes were wide open...or should I say WIDE OPEN!!! I was driving and at the same time looking upwards into the swirling clouds above me. It was hard for me to concentrate due to all the screaming going on in the truck until I realized I was the only one in the truck so the screaming stopped. I don't know how far I drove in those conditions. It seemed like forever but probably was only 5 or 10 minutes. When I finally made it through the storm, I found the first rest stop and pulled in so I could breath for a few minutes. I got out and looked at the damage on my truck which was pretty extensive but I didn't see a lot of damage to my fifth-wheel....but only because I didn't climb up on top of it.

After driving another hour or two, I decided to stop at a Walmart parking lot to spend the night. That's  when I climbed up on top of my fifth-wheel and discovered the rest of the damage. My trailer suffered a broken skylight, broken vent cover, the awning was torn in five places (even though it was rolled up), broken running light, chipped fiberglass propane door and one dent in the metal trim that runs around the lower part of the trailer. As for my truck, it had two cracks in the windshield, a busted fog light, busted bug shield (on the front of the hood) and huge dents in the hood, cab and on the passenger side of the truck. The hail even bent up my front license plate. I knew I had to temporarily repair the items on top of the trailer that would leak if the rain continued so I got right to work. I found out one thing...if you'll climb up on your trailer in a Walmart parking lot, carrying duct tape and large plastic bags, people will drive by and look at you!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Until next time!