A few weeks ago, Frank and I planned our annual Christmas break Reno trip. We booked a hotel for Jan. 2 - Jan. 4 and figured we might do some skiing/snowboarding. Well, little did we know back then that we were planning our trip during one of the worst storms in recent California/Nevada history.
I started checking the weather a few days ago and saw that the area would be hit with strong winds and heavy snow around the time we would be visiting. We kept checking the weather every day up to Wednesday (our departure date), and it looked like we wouldn’t get snow until Friday (our return date). We debated back and forth, back and forth, up til the last minute and then just decided to go for it.
We gave up on the idea of skiing/boarding before we left for a few reasons: 1)the reports of strong winds, 2)the back seats in the Lexus don’t fold down like the ones in the Mazda so we couldn’t bring up our gear that way, 3)we couldn’t find all the Thule car rack parts that we needed to bring up the gear that way, and 4)lift passes are getting really expensive and we’re trying to save some money.
The trip up to Reno was problem-free. Spent the rest of Wednesday hanging out, eating all-you-can-eat sushi at Ichiban at Harrah’s, and played some blackjack (Frank only, I don’t play card games). We spent Thursday eating, watching movies, gambling (Frank only), being blown around by the crazy wind outside, and worrying incessantly about all the reports of storms hitting on Friday (me mostly, Frank seemed to worry just a little).
Now, if you know Frank, he is NOT an early riser in any sense of the term. But because I was so worried that we’d end up stuck on I-80 and freeze to death, he agreed to leave ‘early’ on Friday morning. As Thursday progressed and the warnings of the storm intensified, ‘early’ went from 10am, to 9am, to 8am, and then finally to 7am. Yes, 7am. And guess what? We actually left the hotel as scheduled, on time, at 7 in the morning.
So we head out of Reno, where it was windy and rainy, and hit I-80. Soon enough, we see traffic signs reporting chains required through Truckee. The rain soon turns into snow and the wind is blowing it all over the place. We pull over when we see all the ‘chain’ guys out on the side of the interstate, pay one of them $30 (it was way too crazy to get out there to put on the chains ourselves), and in about 5 minutes, we’re back on the road, bumping along with chains on.
That’s when it got scary. The Lexus is rear wheel drive, and even with chains on, we were sliding around at times. At other times, there was so much snow falling and the wind was whipping it around to the point where we couldn’t see anything but white. And then there were the times when we passed or were passed by big rigs. Those big rigs kick up a lot of snow and you can’t see a thing.
The meteorologists on Thursday’s news reports were using words like “blizzard conditions” and saying that road conditions would be treacherous. Well, we now know exactly what that means, and I literally thanked our lucky stars when we got safely home.
When the drive became less scary, I took some pictures of our travels from the car:
The windshield wipers had a hard time keeping up with all the snow. Check out Frank’s tight grip on the steering wheel.
Just a few seconds later…more and more snow on the car!
Adventurous or stupid? Either way, no more traveling during inclement weather for us.
On a final note, Frank did win some moola on the blackjack tables. I guess we were very lucky throughout our trip. 2008 is turning out great!
