Trip Down Hwy. 395 - Mar. 28, 2005 - Mar. 29, 2005

Monday, March 28, 2005:

We started out from CalExpo at about 1:20 PM on March 28th. We left later than we wanted to because travel over Donner Summit was a little uncertain. Even though we were officially in spring, a winter storm decided to pass through about the same time we wanted to leave. In fact, we had considered leaving Sunday afternoon, but our friend, Kathy DeMille had asked us to join her family and friends for Easter dinner and we couldn't miss that! It was a very nice event and we enjoyed visiting with Kathy and her family and friends.

The trip through Sacramento and up to Blue Canyon was smooth, traffic was light and I only had to yell at drivers once in the Roseville area, but that is the norm. At Blue Canyon, however, we encountered the "storm". Now keep in mind that we had checked the road reports and there were no restrictions. In fact, that was true. No chains were required, but we encountered hail and snow that was so heavy it made me switch on the four-wheel drive to make sure we had good traction. It was a bit harrowing, but we made it over the summit and into Truckee without incident. Susan was great and didn't panic (at least visibly) the whole time.

We drove straight through to Carson City. The drive was uneventful except when we encountered the big changeable message sign that said due to high winds driving any further was not recommended for RV's. Oh GREAT, we were still about 4 miles from our planned camp spot at Washoe State Park. So we took the chance and continued and had no problems. We arrived at the park at about 4:30 PM and found a nice drive through space for the rig. The park was almost deserted so it was very quiet. However, the winds were blowing and it was COLD. Fortunately, since we were dry camping (for you non-RV'ers that means no hookups for electric, water, sewer), we did not have to spend any time hooking up the utilities. We quickly leveled the rig, pushed out the slides, got into the trailer and turned on the heat!

We had a little shopping to do, so once we got warmed up we decided to go to Carson City (we were about 4 miles out of town). Carson City looked better than we remembered from our past travels. As Susan said, "looks like they cleaned up their act". Our destination was WalMart (the RV'ers superstore!). We had a little trouble finding it and stopped at an RV park along the way to get directions. The directions from the RV park folks brought us into the store from the back entrance, where as it happens, was the lube and oil shop. Well, the truck needed an oil change, so this was fortuitous. In goes the truck for service and we went shopping for some groceries and a rotisserie chicken. WalMart has to be one of the few places you can pay for your chicken and lube service at the same time! The service took longer than we expected and we didn't get back to the trailer until 7:30 PM. With only one meal in the late morning under our belts, we were HUNGRY. The chicken took care of that and we settled down to watch one of our favorite shows "24". Through the night the winds continued to blow off and on. We were bundled up and warm in our bed, so all was good with the world.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005:

We got up about 6:30 AM, made the coffee and reviewed our next segment of the trip. Snow was falling lightly, but not sticking to the ground or truck/trailer. The breakdown of the site was uneventful, but it was cool, in the high 30's. We left about 10:15 AM for Bishop.

The drive to Bishop was spectacular. There were rugged mountains to our right and beautiful lakes to our left (ok, not all the time, but Mono Lake was great!). Getting through Carson City was a breeze, but as we were soon to find out winds would really start to blooowww. We encountered some pretty stiff side winds along 395 to Bishop. I guess that the winds were blowing from 20-40 MPH. I am not used to towing in heavy winds, so I gripped the wheel firmly for the first ½ of the trip. As I got the feel of the truck and trailer I became more comfortable with the handling. Although, every so often I would get a strong side gust that would wake me up! Susan was tracking our travel with the computer and a mapping program that displays the topography of the terrain. Very cool. We arrived at Pleasant Valley Reservoir near Bishop at about 3:00 PM. It offered rustic camping along a nice little stream (see the picture section). Folks were fishing when we arrived. Shortly after that we went into the bustling town of Bishop for fuel and bread as recommended by our good friend Claire (she knows I love sourdough French bread). We got some sourdough and sheepherder's bread. Then it was back to the campsite for sausages, baked potatoes and salad (and bread, of course!).