Things went fast with Packer's sale. Sometimes things go ever so slowly, and sometimes things really fall into place. After Packer's new owner decided for sure that she wanted him to make the long trip to England ( lucky he gets to fly )  we set about getting him to quarantine.  There happened to be an open spot, the only catch was...since all the shippers were shut down for the holidays, how would we get him to Billings, MT to meet the deadline of December 28th? It seemed doable at first, but the closer we got, the tougher things got...weather! record snowfall had arrived, it was technically not ever winter just yet...but we made our plans, practiced Packer wearing his blanket, which he would need for the trip and Saturday evening, we were off!
I literally packed all day Saturday...I bedded the trailer deep with straw..filled water jugs, as we would need water, but since our temps are VERY cold, we would have to keep it in the truck with us, and in our motel room. I packed LOTS and LOTS of hay, much more than I thought Packer could eat  I fixed a cooler of food and drinks for us, in the Big Sky country of Montana, towns are far between. I packed all the extra things I could think of that we might need, extra blankets ( for us and for Packer ) extra everything. On a trip of that length you never know what can happen.

Here is Packer practicing wearing his blanket. It was a 3 day learning session, he did not take too well to the idea, but he did learn it was not going to eat him.



We left the ranch at 3:00pm on Saturday...we knew we were headed into a cold, cold situation, and hoped we had all things planned out accordingly.  5 hours later, driving packed snow roads, we arrived in Missoula. The driving was actually not too bad,  there was literally no traffic,  we saw about 5 cars, in a 220 mile stretch of road. We stopped for fuel, and I asked what the temp might be,  seemed a little cold to me...."its only 5 below" was the reply, supposed to be a warmer night, last night was 25 below zero"  .....how would we fare? Could Packer stay plenty warm? Worry started to set in....

We picked a "Days Inn" for our Motel,  usually they are pretty good...when I told the lady why we were traveling, she was quite curious, and could NOT be deterred from taking a peek in the horse trailer!  We tucked Packer in, with 6 flakes of grass hay, a speck of grain and fresh water. He might not be large yet, but he can sure eat! Packer looked very tired, his wiskers were frozen, he just seemed to want to rest, would he eat his hay? would he drink his water?  would he be alright?  I went to bed with a bit of worry on my mind....was this too much?

I have to say, I did not sleep much,  there was a motel guest in the room above us, that had an odd movie on,  the music was just odd, don't know who else to describe it.  The guy next door, had visitors about 2am, I was freezing cold and just could NOT get warm. At about 4:30am Mike got up and we got ready to head out. He checked on Packer, and returned to say..."He looks REALLY good, heck, he even got so hot he took his blanket off!"  Yep, there he stood, all perky, ready to travel, his blanket neatly piled in the corner. ALL the flakes of hay were gone, all the water was gone, and he was ready for more food. I breathed a sigh of relief,  thanked my God for keeping all of us safe, and we headed out once again. Packer seemed to be saying.."I have this whole traveling things figured out...lets get the show on the road!" Of course, those darn humans insisted he wear his blanket again.

More driving..snow floor sometimes,  broken snow floor sometimes, we ate up the miles....We arrived in Huntley, near Billings, MT around 11am...Packer was ready to hop out and greet the world again. Last I saw him, he was playing tag with the horse in the paddock closest to him, one empty paddock seperated them, but they still had a blast...whew...no more passenger..now we just need to get home.

We thought we would drive to Butte or possible Missoula that night. When we came over the Continental Divide (6300+ ft)  we could see Butte...it was almost dusk, and Butte looked simply stunning. The lights of town were twinkling like a lovely Christmas tree, the snow covered ground just set off the view, and the hour of the day made it all look like something out of a book. It was truely magical. I will never forget that sight.

We had a quick dinner, and decided it was a little too early to sleep, so on we drove. Though Missoula was still over 100 miles away, our drive had been pretty easy, so we figured it was doable. About 50 miles before Missoula, we hit snow fall again...it was not easy driving. Though the snow was light, every time someone would pass, you would almost be blinded due to the drift...that 50 miles was the slowest part of our whole trip.

We found a rather upscale Motel 6 in Missoula...it was QUIET!  It snowed about 5 more inches while we slept...we started out again at 6am.  The rest of the trip home was slow,  there was packed snow all the way. Coeur D' Alene has so much snow already ( 3+ft ) and it was snowing again heavily.  We arrived home exactly 48 hours after we had left. We also never had to chain up on our trip, unless you count having to chain to get in our own driveway! It has snowed another 8+ inches here.
We were very thankful to be home, and I suddenly realized,  all those miles ( 1150+ miles ) and we never saw ONE accident that whole way! That is truely amazing. I don't hope to make that trip again soon, but we did it! We spent lots of time preparing and planning, and we did it successfully! Packer will have a bit more of a journey ahead of him, but there is not doubt in my mind he can handle it.