Home in Oregon

We are back home in Salem, and it is cold.  Next week the forecast is a high of 29 (brrrrr).

It was in the 70s when we left Queen Valley on Thursday, December 8.  We drove north on I-17 and started caching at Cordes Junction, all the way through Prescott, Dewey, and on to I-40 where we quit at Seligman.  After 32 finds we quit and drove on to Kingman to spend the night.

Friday, we left Kingman and took hwy 93 through Boulder City (over Hoover Dam).  There is a new highway (bridge) being built to bypass the dam, but it has a long way to go and we were fortunate enough to once again drive over the dam.  Notice the new bridge being built.  This new road will be much higher than the old one.       

Did you see all those guys working on that lower piece??  Hard to imagine how they hang on.

Anyhow, we made it over the dam and once in Boulder city, we had a nice view of Lake Mead.

From there, we headed on for Las Vegas then took I-15 north to where hwy 93 heads west for Tonapah.  We didn't cache at all in the Vegas area (hate the traffic) so only cached the unpopulated areas.  Even though the caches were far between, we found 29.  Not bad, but we had to quit early because we forgot to top off the gas tank in Vegas and we were running low on fuel.  As it was, we got into Tonapah and only had 1/2 gallon of gas left in the tank (whew).  Once we filled the tank, we filled our tummies and found a nice place to stay the night.

On Saturday, we woke to 25 degrees, but things were so dry (and cold), there was no ice anywhere. Again, we cached all of that morning and ended up quitting just south of Fallon, Nevada with 41 finds.  It was getting late, so we grabbed dinner, the drove the next 50 miles to Reno where we spent the couple nights with Ken's aunt and uncle.

That night we sat up very late visting and having a very nice evening with Velma and Francis (auntie and uncle).  What a marvelous treat it was to spend that night and all the next day (Sunday) with them.  We don't get to visit with them but once a year, so we made the most of this visit.

Monday morning came all too quickly, but it was time to head for Salem. Since the trip was going to be about 500 miles, we opted not to cache, but just drove straight home. Our route was 395 out of Reno and north to Alturas, then west through Klamath Falls and west on hwy 58 to I-5 then north to Salem. We were very fortunate that even though it was very cold all day, we encountered no moisture until we reached highway 58 and started heading down the mountain. Just below the summit, we hit slushy snow, but it was no problem in the Jeep and it didn’t last very long. However, not all traveling though there were so lucky.  We encountered this on our way down.

 

We figured they hit the curve too fast and lost control in the slush.  Thankfully, it looked like they were ok, but the car was down off the side of the cliff.

Once we got out of the slush, it was smooth sailing all the rest of the way. The warmest we got all day was near Albany (47 degrees).  After leaving Arizona and the 70s, coming to Oregon and the low 40s (and lower) we are freezing!! Boy do I wish we were back in Arizona, but I hear from a friend that it is cooler (59) and showery there......