Monday, December 31, 2012

Nightmare before Christmas (in the Sierras)

We heard there was a winter storm watch over the Sierras the weekend before Christmas. Since that was when we would be heading over to California, we had been watching the weather closely the days before we left. We ended up leaving a day early to try and beat it.

We headed to Winnemucca with no problem. Then on to Reno with no problem....then the nightmare storm began to hit...and it hit hard


The cars all stopping to put on chains

Just out of Boomtown we had to put on chains...45 minutes later and Trents pants splitting from the knee to the crotch...we were on our way again.


Trent sitting in cold slush putting on our chains

Here we are in the thick of things just trying to get over the mountains. Every 30 minutes or so, we came across a chain check where each car was stopped and checked for chains.



30 miles per hour in a single lane, over the Sierras seemed to take forever. and ever. A few white outs and some scary slippery parts, we were out 5 hours later.

In Sacramento the sky was black and the rain pummeled down on us hard. We made it to Manteca and visited with Jeff for awhile, then back in the car a few more hours to grandpa and Grandma Parsons house. We finally made it there at 11pm at night, more than 14 hours of tense driving...whew, we made it!

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Bailey

Bailey