Kids; there is so much excitement surrounding a long, arduous road trip. I took a load of lighting fixtures out to Kelowna, BC in February 2007. I was a bit apprehensive leaving, even though I knew the truck was safe and I had credit cards in case of breakdown. It was the middle of winter across Canada. It takes 13 hours of driving to get out of Ontario, two days to Calgary and then arriving in Kelowna the third afternoon. Grueling. I slept for 24 hours and still felt my body buzzing from the road. Refreshed, I started back at about 4am. To look good, I took the truck through a car wash before leaving Kelowna. That turned out not to be such a great idea when the locks froze and I was on the outside of a locked, running truck, in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
Headed up to Rogers Pass. The Canadian military use howitzers to fire on potential avalanches. There are sections of the road that are covered in concrete to protect from avalanches every year. 
Reached Rogers Pass. Cold, cold, cold!
Leaving Kelowna, headed back 4am.
I got out to take this picture and inadvertently hit the door lock on my way out. Thinking I was smart to have a backup key in my pocket, I thought I was safe until I realized that washing the truck before starting out in the cold led to the locks freezing. I went from lock to lock for quite awhile, breathing on the key and then trying it in the frozen lock. Fortunately, it finally worked. A real McGyver move.
The road my GPS gave me was actually a logging road that is not used in winter. There are no poles, lanes, roads or anything for 3 hours. Locals told me I could have died up there and not been found until Spring.
Local Beaverdell restaurant, deep in the BC interior. 
Headed toward the US border. Beautiful morning. crisp, with frozen mist on everything.
Got into Montana and found out the road I was on had been closed several hours before. This is the re-direct route. It took me 3 hours to go 50 miles. Couldn’t see any further than this for the entire time.
Never so glad to see an interstate again.
Montana got much better.
Chicago skyline. Yay, only 11 hours to home.