Desert Trip (Day 15)

Well, we should be home by now (Friday) but we are at the Beale AFB FAMCAMP where we may be for the next few days.

As expected, Nevada City and the surrounding Sierra area was hit by a major snow storm yesterday, last night, and today. It looks like about 2 ft of snow or more fell in the Grass Valley/Nevada City area and more is expected tonight. Power is out just about everywhere and the higher areas outside of town have been hit especially hard. We checked the PG&E outage line that confirmed power was out at our house, and that further information about when it may be back on won't be available until 3:00 PM on Sunday.

The Durango and possibly the truck (Judy lent it to a friend who was moving while we were gone) are snowed in at the house. We have our yard guy lined-up to clear the driveway, but he won't be able to do so until he can get to the house and it stops snowing. The power is out at Mom's and at Sharyn and Barry's house. Sharyn says there is at least two feet of snow there and the diveway is impassable. Mom is doing O.K. The caregiver is there and they have heat from the propane fireplace in the living room. We keep checking in, but there is not much we can do from here at the moment.

Weather conditions at Beale are good, although it is breezy and cold. The elevation here is about 600 ft., and the sun was out when we arrived. There are lot of clouds over the hills to the east and a few clouds to the west. The forecast is for another wave of rain and snow coming through overnight with lower snow levels. All things considered, we are probably as good as we can be until the weather clears in Nevada City, the power is back on, and the roads are plowed. The FAMCAMP is fine. This is the first time we have been here; there are full hook-ups, lots of room, grass and trees, two small lakes and mountain views. Base facilities are just down the road so everything we need is readily available.

The ride down from Lemoore was OK. We had some heavy rain and wind north of Fresno but it generally cleared out from Merced north to Beale. The one frustrating experience was the "Caltrans Moment" we experienced in Livingston. It took us 30 minutes of stop-and-go (mostly stop) to get around the town. The cause of the delay was a lane closure with several Caltrans trucks parked along side of the road. As we went by we noticed two people working in a culvert with four people supervising.

We will keep checking on conditions up the hill and try and get home as soon as we can.