Arizona for the Winter

Once again, we are back in sunny Arizona--well, it's sunny now, but there is supposed to be a storm coming through this weekend, and the temps will drop down in the 50s with rain, wind, and more rain. That is still better than the “freezing” temps we had in Salem.

Monday the 31st, we got up early in hopes of leaving Salem before the traffic got bad. At 6 am, Ken made a run to Safeway for some dry ice and found out the morning fog was freezing, and the streets were a sheet of ice. After considerable thought, we decided to wait in hopes things would thaw……well they didn’t, so ended up leaving on icy streets at 8:30. The fog and 28 degree temperature stayed with us all the way to Eugene. It was incredible to watch our radio antennae become a blob of ice as the fog froze to it. We watched the ice build and break off several times during that ride to Eugene.

Once in Eugene, we stopped for breakfast and I got on the Internet, via my cell phone, (how great is that??) and viewed the road cams on the Siskiyous and Willamette Pass to see which way we could/would travel. The Siskiyous looked good but we really didn’t want to go that way. Willamette Pass was packed snow and required chains from mile post 52 to 70. However, vehicles under 10,000 lbs, not towing, and with traction tires could go through without the chains. Since the worst area was only 18 miles and was only packed snow, not ice, we decided to head over highway 58 and through Willamette Pass. Thankfully, just south of Eugene the fog disappeared and we had sunny skies from there on.

Willamette Pass was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be. The snow was packed hard and covered with gravel which made great traction. The only trucks we saw were parked, either chaining up or unchaining, after they crossed the summit. Because of the hazardous weather warning, not many people were traveling that way, so we had most of the road to ourselves. At the summit, the temperature dropped to 18 degrees, but it still was sunny and clear. I took a couple pictures after we crossed the summit. These are taken through the Jeep windshield and not the greatest shots, but you can see how pretty things were.

Look, peaceful solitude...






This truck is unchaining after crossing the summit.


The rest of the day was uneventful. We drove through Chemult to Klamath Falls where it was 21 degrees. The lake was a sheet of ice, but the road was clear with lots of snow in the fields. We had snow all the way to Susanville, but roads remained clear. We arrived Susanville at 5 pm and stayed the night. It was New Year’s Eve, but we were way too tired to stay up and watch it come in. Plus, it was way too cold to go out anywhere (18 degrees outside).

Tuesday, January 1, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We were up really early and on the road at 6 am. Temperature was 20 degrees, but the further east we went, it bounced between 12 and 18...brrrrrrr. We drove on through Reno (20 degrees) and east to Fernly where we fueled up at $3.01 a gallon. As we traveled further south, snow was less and less, and finally gone a little south of Goldfield around Scotty’s Junction (Death Valley area). By this time, the temperature was in the 40s. Again, we took the side trip through Pahrump (west of Las Vegas) and this time stayed the night in a really nice motel. At 5 pm, It was 45 degrees...it was so nice we actually went out to dinner and enjoyed the evening (we didn't even need our coat).

The hotel where we stayed in Pahrump had a great buffet breakfast for its guests. There were scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, bisquits & gravy, along with fruit, toast, cereal, and a variety of drinks. We ate at 6 am and were heading out of town by 6:30. The day before, we did some geocaching from Beatty to Pahrump (found 11). Today, we started caching just outside of town and all through west Vegas on the old Las Vegas Boulevard to Jean on I-15. Even picked up a couple more caches near Searchlight. Even with picking up 32 caches, we still made it to Searchlight (north of Laughlin) before Noon. We fueled up there at $3.09 a gallon.

We quit caching at Searchlight because we still had a long way to drive to reach Queen Valley and wanted to get there before dark (didn't happen). Just south of Wickenburg, we cut across to I-17 then went off on the 101 east. We made great time until getting caught in 5 O’Clock traffic in the Scottsdale area. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get from the Cave Creek exit (Cave Creek Rd) on 101 to exiting on the 202 near Tempe. After exiting on the 202, the traffic was much better, but still heavy. As we neared the end of the freeway at Power Road in Mesa, the going was much faster. Before going on to Queen Valley, we stopped for a bite to eat in Apache Junction, then fueled up at $2.97 a gallon. Also, we stopped for groceries in Gold Canyon and finally got to the coach at 7:30 pm.

It didn’t take long to get coach aired up to move the slides out, but unloading the car took a while (we were very loaded). In fact, we didn’t finish unloading until the next morning (Thursday).

Today, Friday the 4th, after running some morning errands in town, we are totally settled in and ready to get back in the swing of QV living. It is sooooo nice to be baaaaaacccccckkkkk!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!