Day 1/2 - Snow encore

Whew.  We managed to get ourselves and the cat to the airport for an uneventful flight to LA.  The final inspection and purchase of the RV went great.  The woman who had owned it took wonderful care of the unit and had loved her many travels with it.  We have very good feelings about her and wish her many more years of happy travel.

Our new rig was spit polish clean with a full tank of gas and ready to go.  So go we did.  We made a hasty retreat from LA, heading north.  Since we’re ‘bear bones’ with no gear (it’s all in Reno), we stayed the night in a hotel and left early this morning for the 370 mile drive to Reno.  This might be the longest mileage single day drive we do on the entire trip.

We drove up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains taking pictures out of the windows while flying down the road.  It was a most spectacular drive.

We’re learning how to do lots of new things. Spotify and Bluetooth to portable speaker mounted on dash (thanks to Mike, Cindi and kids).  It’s an excellent cut and paste system since our old rig only has a cassette player.  We’ve put gas into the tank without crashing into anything at the gas station.  We’re figuring out the best way to manage Stinky’s needs.  We’ve learned how to use the overdrive to keep the engine happiest going up big hills.

The day started in brilliant sun, but the skies changed, and we started driving through showers of small hail pellets.

We climbed to over 8000 foot elevation where the 'pop-up' spring snow storm rapidly accumulated on the road surface.  There were several spin-outs (including a motorcycle) and fender benders. It was a bit of a white-knuckle drive for over an hour until we reached a lower elevation.  

We were NOT not prepared for THAT on Day 2.  The whole way down the mountain pass, approaching Reno, we 'shed' large chunks of heavy wet show.
Within an hour of our destination Kris ‘kissed’ mirrors with another truck.  Our rig is fine – they need a new mirror.  UGH. 

Glad today is over. Now we have a couple of weeks to chill, gear up, deal with insurance claim, better learn the rig, play with the kids etc.
Tomorrow we drive to Reno airport to pick up the 18 boxes we shipped to ourselves,  all of which WON'T fit into the rig and get the rig registered (in Nevada).  So much to figure it out!

PS.  The reason for ‘encore’ in the title, is that on more than one occasion, we have taken ‘summer’ vacations, beginning in May that have involved surprise snow events.  Why should this trip be different?