One Step Ahead of the Storm

The weather forecast that was calling for mostly rain over the top on Friday suddenly advanced the snow by a few hours, so about 10:30 AM this morning, after clearing as much Day Jobbe stuff as I could, Lisa helped me finish packing the Rolling Stone and I headed west several hours earlier than originally planned. Weather was okay until Truckee, when rain started, and the electronic signs warned that it was snowing over the summit. Trucks were being screened and could not proceed without tire chains on board. I don't have chains for the RV, but they weren't required just yet. I cranked down the speed on the wet and slushy road and followed big rigs up and over the top. By Colfax, the slush had turned back into rain and I felt safe enough to risk a rest stop. I also made a brief visit to my sister in Sacramento. It was only around 2 PM when I drove through Sacramento and headed south on I-5. I thought I'd dodged the traffic, when suddenly things ground to a halt. We crawled along for a while, and finally I joined other vehicles who jumped off at Hood-Franklin Road. Pulling over and checking Google Maps, I confirmed that there were surface roads clear to Lodi Junction, and so I (and others) wandered through the Consumnes River Preserve. I made a wrong turn and ended up back on the freeway for a while, but it was presumably south of whatever had gummed up the works, and I proceeded without further incident to the Flying J. All that idling through nearly-stopped traffic made the RV's bad fuel economy even worse.

After an early dinner at Denny's at Lodi Junction (where the staff are starting to recognize me, presumably by the Jacaru hat), I continued toward the Bay Area. Most of the trip wasn't awful, being counter-commute, but there were still long stretches of stop-and-go traffic along the way. Eventually, I laid up on a street near our Fremont warehouse where other RVs and big rigs frequently overnight. (I can't park on the warehouse property itself; security is instructed there to run off all overnight parking, not just me. Primarily they're targeting truckers.

Tomorrow I will be in the office doing the work that I would have usually done on Friday afternoon. Rain I can handle. Wind wasn't much fun. Snow is right out.