Thursday March 1 Day 42

I checked the TV as soon as I got up this morning, (approx. 8 am) and we didn’t get any more news on the big expected storm.  Last night’s TV news had said they were expecting 4 to 6 FEET of snow in the mountains.  So, based on the assumption there might be Hwy patrol turning back cars without chains, I planned a route back home via Coast Hwy 101.  The trouble with this route is--it requires us to backtrack over 200 miles from the pass & then about 75 miles to Coast hwy 101, then about 225 miles to get equal to where we were at the OR/CA border.  So we departed Red Bluff Elks @ 9:20 @ 49850 with trepidation.  We started our 140 mile trip to the Siskiyou Pass.  Well, before getting there we started to get a sleety snow/rain mix and a build up of snow/ice slush on the road and windshield. That plus fog made visibility not good.  And for good measure we were on the 4 lane divided road with many, many semi’s, all spraying the rain & sleet everywhere! We drove through that for an hour or more at the elevation of 3,000 feet. We actually were going up & down as I passed 3 signs at different times that all said elevation 3,000 feet.  Fortunately, Sheila was engrossed in Yvonne’s book & never looked out the front window.  If she had I’m sure she would have got up, ran to the back of the RV screaming “We’re all going to die!” Not a fun drive!  Eventually the rain/snow stopped.  Then, as we got closer to the mountain pass we came out of the storm to see clear sky, totally snow-free fields all at 3000 feet elevation.  There were several warning lights set up about who could continue depending on what you had, chains, winter tires, 4 wheel drive etc., but none of the lights were blinking so we pushed on and up.  As we approached the CA/OR border I glanced at the dash to see what temp we were at.  At 12:15 we crossed into OR at temp 38 F and at 50,000 miles exactly--just a fluke I looked at the speedometer at that moment, then, at 12:20 we reached the summit of 4310 feet.  All the way up, (once we were out of the snow storm back down the hwy), there was no snow on the road and none on the side, then, going down the other side there was snow covering all the sides of the road.  It was like the storm hit the northern side of the mountain and never went over to the southern side and a separate storm hit us 40 or so miles south, before the summit.  The trip down the mountain was fine--no snow on the road surface & bare, almost dry pavement.  We pulled off the hwy just north of Medford for cheaper OR gas at 12:50 at 50031 miles and were back on the hwy at 1:10.  Then to a rest area for a lunch stop, in @ 1:25, out @ 2:10. Then we ran into another snow/rain storm so we creped along mostly at 40 or so MPH, passing semi’s crawling up small hills and then passing them later.  That storm lasted a less then a hour.  Finally into our night stop in Sutherlin, OR at the full service Hi-Way Haven RV Park at 4:00 PM at 50136 miles.  We set up and Sheila cooked a nice supper while I crashed out for an hour. Then it’s time to explore the TV channels, work on the blog and internet stuff.  This is quite a nice campground.  It has a huge outdoor screen where they show Drive-in movies from time to time, presumable in the summer, and a really nice dining room in the clubhouse which would be great for Roamers’ outings.  Too bad it’s so far from Coquitlam.

           Distance traveled – 286 miles, on road time – 5 hrs 35 min’s