Day 62 Tuesday April 18

It's Wednesday and we are in the 7 Feathers free parking lot down at the casino and are picking up the campground WiFi so I can post yesterdays blog.

We awoke to this strange noise on the roof, and then realized it was rain. This is the first time we’ve seen rain since on the trip south in Feb.  So it was a slow start.  I waited for the rain to stop before going out to unhook, (it looked like it was slowing up so I just went slow with all the other stuff and I had a breakfast).  Anyway out Fun & Sun @ 46220 miles @ 10:50 AM and off up Hwy 99.  Had a crash delay from 12:40 to 12:55 where we just crawled at 2 or 3 mph. What had happened was a truck had hit the guard rail on the right side of the hwy & tore up a long section, probably over 50 feet and the truck ended up on its side in the ditch. We arrived at our gas stop at the Flying J near Lodi on hwy 5 at hwy 12 at 2:10 @ 46407 miles; I got the propane tank filled and I filled the gas tank.  Their propane tank was right beside the RV gas pump so it was really easy, only had to move the RV forward about 8 feet to the gas pump. Finished propane and gas fill, (took 52 USG @ $2.609), at 2:40 then had lunch, split a foot long sub and out back on I – 5 at 3.00 PM.  Next accident delay was not too long & we moved at 15 or 20 MPH.  We eventually saw signs saying right lane closed so a lot of the delay was from merging 3 lanes into 2.  For this one as I approached the event there was rubber & bits of tire all over the right lane & shoulder.  Turns out a big heavy double bulk load trailer had literally shredded a middle tire and rolled on its side.  The tire rim was still on with little shards of rubber around it.  Both accidents appeared to have been injury free as the cabs of both trucks were intact & undamaged.  We carried on & got into Wal-Mart in Willows at 5:05 @ 46525 miles.  Both Wal-Mart & Nancy’s Café were open & fully recovered from the flooding in February. Wal-Mart has WiFi but it appears that it would only work for Phones as there are no tables etc to set up a lap top.  We bought some stuff at Wal-Mart and then we went over to Nancy’s Café for supper. For $1.00 they will split a dinner.  So we split the 10 oz New York steak. The meal comes with choices & we chose mashed potatoes with a thick brown gravy, salad bar, and corn bread. We each got to go to the salad bar for a full plate of salad, the mashed potatoes & gravy was a full scoop on both plates and the corn bread was 2 corn breads, then add in that they never charged the $1.00 for splitting the dinner onto 2 plates. The steak was cooked perfectly and was delicious. All that for $22.50 which included my root beer. Nancy’s is always a great deal. Back to the RV and hopefully get an earlier start tomorrow.

Distance covered - 305 miles - - 5 hrs 20 min driving time