With a huge snowstorm forecasted in the Sierras, we decided to leave Colorado a day earlier than planned in order to miss the storm. What we didn’t expect was a snowstorm in Loveland during the night. Hoping to make an early start, we welcomed the morning with ice covering everything – meaning even two inches on top of the trailer and the slideouts. With two inches of ice on the slides, they can’t shut. Thankfully, our daughter decided to come say ‘good bye’ and when she saw her daddy on the roof of the trailer chopping ice and using the push broom to remove it, she wanted to help.
Four hours later, we were finally on Interstate 80 crossing Wyoming. For anyone who travels this route to Salt Lake City, you know two things: one, there is wind, always high winds and two, there are tractor trailer trucks non-stop passing and racing for first in line to slow down. As this is our first real venture with the truck and trailer, we were a little overwhelmed – or my husband was since he was driving.
Within the first two hours, a nice truck drivin’ lady decides to move to the left lane to give entrance one the interstate to another tractor trailer. We’re not sure what happened but she obviously didn’t see us and nearly pushed us into the median. My husband had to seriously swerve with a 42-foot trailer and not catch the median grass/drop off. A little adrenaline rush to say the least and when we passed her, she waved with a nice smile as if she had no clue she nearly caused a serious accident.
Our first stop for the night was at a little RV park right off I-80 in Coalville, Utah. By the time we reached our destination, we were ready to be off the road. However, that was not to be the case. Unless we unhitched our trailer, they had no room for our 42-foot rig. At our daughter’s suggestion, we drove 20 more miles further to Rockport State Park, then another 10 miles around the reservoir to the only RV campground. As we pulled in near sunset, we knew it was going to be TIGHT. A nice gentleman, who we thought was the campground host but was not, showed us a pull through site and said he thought we could fit. He was right! AND, the view from our dining table window was spectacular!
We started the next morning through Salt Lake City traffic and then across the Salt Flats. This area has significance to our lives as my husband rolled and totaled his car on the flats at the beginning of our relationship. It’s always a long haul across this area remembering where he lost his favorite car – a little Subaru – many, many years ago. When we stopped to touch the salt water, I was reminded once again of our Dead Sea visit and how sharp the little salt mounds are. The views are quite different, but the ‘deadness’ of the salt water is the same. It was at this stop that we saw our ‘little’ Sadie sitting with the big trucks ….
We continued traveling on Interstate 80 toward the Sierras. All weather reports included rain mixed with snow. Passing through Reno, we met some people from Truckee who said it was really bad at the top and we may even need chains – something we didn’t have. Well, we were blessed by the living God! Though it rained hard the whole way up and the 40 miles down, we did not encounter snow. We did encounter speed limits of 55 for those vehicles towing trailers and tractor trailers. With the deluge of rain, yellow flashing signs said to go even slower. Of course, we were the ONLY ones going slow, being passed by not only cars, but those towing horses, trailers and boats and every tractor trailer this side of the divide. After 12 hours on the road – our promise to ourselves is only 6 – we arrived at our destination in California. The rain continued to pelt us as we tried to park the trailer. We didn’t have any light to get it leveled so we had to wait until the next morning. Sleeping was interesting as our bed tilted downhill and I woke up in the middle of the bed. (If you are interested in staying here in Auburn, let me know. They have two awesome Airbnb rentals!)
In the drenching rain the next morning, we managed to unhitch the truck and level the trailer. During our descent of the pass by Lake Tahoe, an ‘engine check’ light came on in the truck. My husband took it to a dealer and found out that one of the cylinders blew – on a diesel truck with only 60,000 miles! The good news – they have all next week to work on it as we are heading to San Jose to visit our son. They gave us a rental car through the warranty so we won’t have to drive our huge truck in all that traffic. AND, we bought a bumper to bumper warranty and so the fix will be Free.99.
At this point, I will add that we have an airplane we are trying to sell. It seemed as though we have had many buyers, but then the offers fall through. This time, there apparently is a lien on the airplane from 1977. The bank doesn’t exist any more and Bank of America that bought the bank doesn’t have records back that far. Did I mention that it continues to rain, rain, rain?
Tonight is the Sabbath and we are spending it with our family who has been so gracious to share their ‘land’ with us. We look forward to our rest tomorrow and hope that nothing more happens in our saga of crazy events.
Shabbat Shalom!
Last Day in Loveland 
De-icing 
Rockport State Park, Utah 
Great Salt Lake 
Hangin’ with the Big Boys 
Auburn, California 
Beautiful View 
More CHICKENS! 
Our ‘yard’ Campspot