Billings, MT to Salt Lake City, UT

This should have been a great trip, but things seem to go wrong at every turn, mostly due to poor planning on my part.  First off, I made the mistake of traveling SW, which gave me headwinds almost the entire trip.  Second, I made the trip in early September, and so was met by a murderous hail storm the first day.  The hail that greeted me was snow at higher elevations, and so when I finally arrived at Red Lodge I was informed that the northern entrance into Yellowstone was closed as the road was now impassable.  This forced a diversion eastwards to Cody.  The eastern entrance, coming from that direction, was open, but the winds coming from the west were among the strongest I have ever encountered.  The route through Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, continueing down through the Snake River Canyon to Alpine was excellent, and the weather held.  (But still strong headwinds).  However when I reached Geneva, UT, the road that would have taken me west through Montpelier and on out to Logan was closed.  So, another diversion southwards down to Evanston, WY.  Unfortunately, the only way to get from Evantson to Salt Lake was to cycle Interstate 80: noise, grime, uncomfortably close traffic -- and, to top it off, I got hit with another snow storm about two hours into that final day's ride.  There was nothing to do but to slug it out, but it made for an extra dangerous (slippery, with virtually non-functioning brakes) and icy cold day.  Note to self: Next time, start at Salt Lake and work way NE to Montana.