I drove an Enterprise Rent-a-Car one way from Roseburg, Oregon to Missoula, Montana. Most of the route is on Interstate highways.

On June 11 I drove from Roseburg to Ritzville, Washington. The plan was to drive mostly on I-5 and I-84. Unfortunately, that day a Union Pacific train started a huge fire in the Columbia river gorge. I-84 and all parallel roads were closed. I waited for almost an hour in the town of Hood River only 10 blocks from a bridge to Washington, but traffic never moved. Maybe the bridge was closed to the public to prevent delays to firefighting vehicles using the bridge. Or maybe the 2-lane bridge and the 2-lane highway on the Washington side were gridlocked with diverted I-84 traffic.

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After a long wait I turned around and backtracked to Portland and drove I-5 north to Tacoma, then WA 18 and I-90 east to Ritzville. That route is 2 hours longer than the planned diagonal on I-84, with a giant mountain climb and much more urban congestion. Before the detour I spent 3 hours driving from Portland to Hood River, waiting, then driving back to Portland. 

I could have saved a lot of time if I turned around when I saw an electronic sign that said "All lanes closed 59 miles ahead due to wildfire. Use alternate route". I was hoping my alternate route could be in the Columbia river gorge. I didn't realize that the only passable alternate route was a 150 mile detour on other Interstate highways. Every road and bridge in the Columbia river gorge was either closed or gridlocked.

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The easy 440 mile drive turned into a 720 mile ordeal. I arrived in Ritzville at 11:10 PM. The giant wildfire detour seemed like a bad omen for the upcoming tour.

On June 12 I woke up feeling sleep deprived, drove I-90 to Missoula, and returned the rental car after lunch. The second half of the day was car-free, so I'll call it day 1 of the bike tour.