Travel Log 2: October 10, 2008 - Outrunning the Snow

Written by Brenda-Lee Thompson

We left off in our last log at October 7. We spent the next day (October 8) in La Grande, Oregon. It was a nice day to rest and we caught up on some chores like washing the truck and washing the bugs off the front of the RV. That night, the temperature went down to ZERO and we saw on the web that there was snow predicted in the next several days for the route we were planning to take. We decided to get out of La Grande in a big way the next day.

October 9, we left at 6:45 am. It was very cold packing up our rig at minus 2.5 C. Adrian insists on reporting the “point 5”. “It’s not just minus 2 degrees, it’s minus 2-POINT-5”! We woke up with cold noses and knew it was time to get further south to avoid the coming snow.

We travelled south east on I-84 through Oregon ( Baker City and Ontario) and into Idaho. Boise, Idaho to Twin Falls, then south on 93 to Jackpot Nevada. We followed the 93 all the way through to Ely, Nevada.

It was a huge day of travelling 550 miles/885 kilometers in 12 hours. We started the day with sun rising on our left and ended the day with it setting on our right. We pulled in to Ely, Nevada right around 6:30 pm. Check out your Atlas and see how far we travelled today. Big, big day!

For most of the day we were travelling in the same scenery: desert plains with sage and scrub with the most beautiful purple mountains in the background. The road was straight as an arrow and heading was due south. On this day we crossed the 45^th parallel, which is the half-way mark between the equator and the North Pole. So…yahoo, we are closer to the equator!!

We found an RV park in Ely, Nevada and ended our day at 13 degrees C. We accomplished our goal of outrunning the predicted snow on the route we had just travelled.

Today, October 10, we woke up in Ely with cold noses and frozen hoses. Minus 2.0 degrees AGAIN. That cold front just keeps catching up to us. Today was our last leg to Vegas. We spent 5 hours coming down the State 93 Highway.

We left Ely at 9:45 and arrived Vegas at 4:30! To balmy temperatures of 28 degrees C!!!!! Before we even unhooked the RV to set up, we scrambled to change into shorts and flip flops!

We pulled in to “Las Vegas RV Resort” and have a lovely situation here. It is a very clean park with paved lots and a beautiful pool and clubhouse. We even have Palm Trees!!!

On a side note, our truck, Clyde, has been performing well beyond our expectations. We had some long climbs in the last couple of days and he kept his speed with much power to spare. We are so pleased! Also, our GPS with the female voice (whom Adrian has affectionately named “Lola”) has been indeed the best investment of our entire life so far! We set our course and she advises of upcoming intersections, she plots our arrival time and adjusts that time based on our speed and stops we make. When we pull in somewhere to fill up on diesel, she even tells us which way to turn when leaving the parking lot to resume our travels! When we arrived in Las Vegas, we entered the address of the RV Resort we wanted to get to and she just eased us through the traffic and plunked us right at our resort. We have found a menu in the programming which also reports altitude which was very handy as we climbed and descended many passes in the last few days.

So here we are in Las Vegas! A, B and little b. all feeling a lot happier with an opportunity to thaw!