We got to Minden, NV from Quincy, CA on Saturday night. The 10 miles North of Minden is a “high winds” stretch of highway. We had luckily passed through with little to no winds. When we checked into the park, the woman at the gate told us we were lucky to get there early as the winds were forecasted to pick up and the road (California 395) would soon be closed to semis and RVs. We pulled the rig into our spot and stayed hooked for the night as we intended to head further South in the morning. Our space had a small tree about 10 feet from our bedroom slide-out.
The winds did pick up during the night banging the tree against our bedroom wall again and again. It was kinda like being in a tornado or hurricane pathway. There were big hard gusts of wind shaking the rig and then nothing for a while before the big gusts and tree banging came again. This went on most of the night. By morning the winds had not really diminished. We checked with both the Nevada and California DOTs (Department of Transportation) web sites to check on the wind / road conditions. CA 395 was closed for RVs between Minden and the San Bernadino. So, we went over to the casino and gave them some of our retirement money.
Sunday night wasn’t much better but we waited out the wind, rain, and banging on the bedroom wall. We thought if we got up and left early (or at least what was early for us – 8am), we could get through the rough spots and get to Bishop, CA before the weather really got going for the day. Well, both DOTs gave tentative oks for the trip. The weather records showed light winds down 395 in our path. So, as we were still hooked up, we took off early and hurried to Bishop.
There was little to no winds on our Monday drive. We were lucky enough to be just out of range of the winds. California’s DOT still warned for the roads further South but we had an easy and relatively quick drive to Bishop. Our one-night stopover was again at a casino (just as you enter Bishop) but much cheaper - $5 – no hook up (i.e., water, electricity, and sewer). But we were fine having planned for this type of stop on our way to Southern California. Ruthi was having some pain from a sore throat so we looked into walking to a local clinic to check that it wasn’t strep. We couldn’t find anything close by so figured we do it at our next stop. So, after again supporting the local economy at the casino, we crashed early.
