Oct 26, 2019
It seemed like a very long day
Having said that, tomorrow will be even longer. Because of very cold weather in our path we will be making some changes. This morning ( Saturday ) I awoke at 5:45AM bur stayed in bed until the alarm went off at 6:30AM. Colin had already turned on the furnace and that took some of the chill out of the air. It was 38.4F/3.5C outside and not much warmer inside. I dressed in my normal layers of fleece while Colin wore his usual shorts and shirt. We were ready and driving by 7:27AM, each with a coffee.
Beautiful sunrise, second day in a row. I better be careful that this does not become a habit.
We were happy to see this cloud as it helped keep the sun out of our eyes. It was soon gone. But it sure made a pretty picture..
Crossing the first arm of the Columbia River.
And here as we cross the second arm you are looking at Oregon.
We have not driven this route for two years, at least not heading south. This huge solar farm is just at the entrance to Pendleton, something new to us.
The ever so long and slow uphill pass. Here you see the red truck and white truck coming from below and behind us as we keep climbing around the curve. The trucks you see on the top are heading north.
It was an odd day weather wise, one moment sunny and very warm and the next cool and dark and we had to turn on the heat. It went back and forth all day. Hot or cold.
We finally made it to the top of the pass, 4,193 feet.
We found some snow up there.
Suddenly it became grey and dim and we had snow blowing across the highway. As we descended the snow disappeared.
This driver is an idiot. Who pulls a vehicle on a dolly like that? The truck kept moving from side to side behind the RV. The driver could hardly keep the RV in the lane. Extremely dangerous. Not to mention wear and tear on both vehicles.
Finally Idaho, only 95 more miles to go today.
I had been thinking about how great it was to leave on a Friday for a few reasons. First off, is that we don’t watch anything on TV until Monday so we don’t have to set up the satellite dish to tape anything. We never watch anything live. Secondly, is that we will be spared road construction for today and tomorrow. This was a wee slow down from three lanes to four. Traffic moves very fast in Idaho. 80mph for cars and 70 for trucks. We never drive faster than 62 – 63mph as the manual says we should not tow the Jeep faster than that. Everyone was passing us at very rapid speeds.
We arrived much earlier than anticipated at 3:45PM at the Mountain Home, Idaho Walmart. Our home for the night. There was a high wind warning for the area and just as we were pulling in the winds really picked up. The RV was rocking and things were flying all over. So glad that we were off the road. It was a beautiful day with blue sky and plenty of sunshine yet very cool and extremely windy. We were almost blown away on our walk to and fro Walmart. We are sitting with the generator running and two heaters on high. It is 68F inside and 41F outside. It appears that there is a cold front moving south and tonight we are going to get down to 21F/-6.1C 🙁 It is warmer back home in Kelowna. Even Las Vegas, our stop for next week, is going to be very cool.
Tomorrow is going to be a tricky day for us. Our usual overnight stop is Ely Nevada. However the forecast for tomorrow night is -14F/-25.6C. No that is not a typo. There is no way we can stay here in that cold weather even in an RV Park. We plan to drive at least another 188 miles in order to get to a lower elevation where the temperature is expected to be 16F/-9c tomorrow night. Not ideal but far better than staying in Ely.
Read the fine print on this weather alert for Ely tomorrow night. Record breaking cold temperatures. We are supposed to be getting warmer as we travel south. Does anyone still not believe in climate change? -14F is -25.6C
As we pulled into Walmart this afternoon I took a quick snap of this older bus. It is a Blue Bird with lots of solar panels on the roof. I was going to get more photos but it left as we were setting up.
We drove a total of 410 miles today. As I mentioned earlier, it was a longish day. Not looking forward to tomorrow.
We usually keep the living room slide in when we travel but open the curb side bedroom slide. That way we can get around the bed. However tonight we will be bringing in the bedroom slide as a precaution. Drat, I should have had my shower earlier before the temps started to drop 🙄
Stay tuned for how tomorrow goes. Will we freeze? Or????
Quick update, we have to shut down the generator ASAP, Colin went outside to check the slide going in and it sounds bad and smells like it is burning up. Remember how we had it serviced last winter but it never was quite right. Not sure it I can post tomorrow.
Mini update, our batteries are dying so they are not reliable. We will be changing them in Mexico. Like I say, always some drama in our lives.
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You guys are having a tough go of it and the cold weather won’t do your batteries any good 🙁 Good luck tomorrow!
Thank you. We did manage but it was not easy.
Good luck with tomorrows travel day and hopefully some warmer weather soon.
Thank you George. We need all the luck we can get.
The pass at Blue Mountain was clear and crisp thus morning. We are a day behind you, and will be near Vegas Monday evening.
Lucky you. Hopefully you will not have the issues we had to deal with today. We will be in Vegas at the Las Vegas RV Park mid afternoon Monday.
You might be tired from driving all day when you read this. Hopefully you can manage somehow without the gen set or at least make do the way it is running now. Having no electricity can be a big headache but I guess your fridge is running on propane and you could cook and heat the rig with propane too. You are travelling pros so I think you will figure it all out. Best of luck.
Yes we are tired but happy to have electricity. The fridge is fine on propane and we can use the stovetop but no furnace because fo the low batteries. Likely no slides either. Looks like we will only have to deal with all of this again for two nights. The rest of the time will be sure to be in RV parks.
We aren’t the only ones getting a late start heading south. It is snowing here in Colorado and the temps are cold. Be safe.
Actually this is a normal start date for us. It’s just act the weather is abnormal. Good luck with your travels.
We have stayed at that Walmart many times but always on the way home. Too bad about the weather. Hope your batteries get charged, not much fun without them.
As long as we are plugged in the batteries will work. Our big concern are those two days on Mexico from Nogales to Isla de la Piedra. PLusnow we have coolant problems in the RV engine.