Every kind of weather on the road to Santa Rosa

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bernie drove up at 10:30 am having left Coeur‘dAlene early this am. We added water to both coaches as it was lovely and warm in Pasco and we thought we were safe to do so. The weather and the highways were great and we drove to Bend, OR where we stayed at Walmart. Shortly after arriving, it started snowing like crazy and the temp.dropped to freezing. By morning it was -7C and our furnace stopped working thru the night….warm under the covers but we could sure see our breath! Bernie had a warm coach so we sat there ‘til we thawed. The road as we took off was iced up and it was snowing. At least the sun is shining.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
What a day this has been! We set off at about 8:30 am from Bend heading south on Hwy. 97. The roads were awful and Bernie (in the lead) was desperately looking for a way to burn a U-ey and go back to the Walmart because the road was so treacherous! We made it down the road about 30 miles and stopped for breakfast @ Cindy’s in LaPine. That felt better. Then we continued on until we were stopped by a horrific accident between a semi and a blue car, head-on collision. The semi went one way, spewing cases of potato chips over the road and the blue car went into the other ditch, hardly recognizable as a car. The car driver didn’t survive. It was very sobering.
We carried on traveling in conditions more like winter in Grand Prairie than southern Oregon in the spring and crossed the border into California where there was still snow. We were traveling most of the day at an elevation of between 3800 – 5000 feet above sea level and it was not pleasant!! We finally made it to Corning, Ca where we stopped for the night at a RV park on a lovely river…great fishing here they say. It is finally warmer and lots of fresh greenery about. Tomorrow we reach our destination in Santa Rosa. I requested a handicapped spot in the campground because it’s 3/8 mile from the campground to the activity buildings and I know Alan can’t handle that hike several times a day while we’re there. He’s healing slowly and there are no complications, so far. He has done almost all the driving on the trip and is feeling good. The leg is quite swollen and black and blue but doesn’t hurt.
Friday, March 28, 2008
We saw some amazing huge spring salmon mounted on the wall of the registration office of the RV park where we stayed last night. Their river, the Sacramento, also has tons of river otters but, we couldn't see any when we looked. We left Corning after gassing up and breakfasting at the Flying J truckstop and washing both our coaches which were quite filthy. We can't arrive in pristine wine country with dirty vehicles now, can we?
We left Corning about 11am and travelled down I-5 to Williams(check your maps). From ther we chose a route more or less as the crow flies to SR. Well, what a roller-coaster ride were we in for!! I think it's called the Petrified Forest Highway. We went up and we went down and we have never experienced so many hairpin turns ever! Alan was driving ,thank heavens!! Also, it was raining and the mist was so heavy that you could hardly see. Very scary!!! The speed limit for most of the road was 20 - 25 mph for all the turns. We finally reach our destination on "The Road to Santa Rosa at 5:00pm...we hit the rush hour in SR, too.
What a relief! They gave us a handicapped spot beside the main building..Thank heavens . The rest of the people have quite a hike.
Well, right now it is 9:30pm PDT and there's a steady drizzle outside. We hope that changes tomorrow to the traditional California sunshine. This really is a beautiful place and we are so happy to have arrived safe & sound.