Phew It Worked Out

I think last night, when we we were parking Maxx and waiting for him to auto level, I was the coldest I have ever been. I was so happy to get inside and warm up and we had a great, toasty warm, night. Walmart delivered with free WiFi and very quiet night.

We left this morning under sunny skies, no snow, and temps at freezing …we were so happy when we woke up and looked out the winter to see no snow on the ground and a dry parking lot.

The guy in the picture below pulled in late last night, judging by the crap on his truck and trailer it doesn’t look like it was a fun trip. But the encouraging thing for us was that all that frozen stuff was melting and falling off his truck and trailer 😀

Nothing personal Winnemucca but I was happy to wave goodbye to you before your next storm comes in later this morning! Once we were back on Highway 95 I thought the view was pretty, even with all the snow on the mountains, because this route takes us through the valley rather than over the snowy mountains so we can enjoy the view and not the driving through it.

The roads in Nevada have been awesome, very well maintained and a very smooth drive. Unfortunately that all changed when we entered Oregon, the road was terrible for the first twenty-five miles! So bumpy I was starting to get nauseous, but Maxx handled it like a pro and nothing moved around. The sky also changed as soon as we entered Oregon 😦

We did have a few snow flurries during our drive through Oregon but nothing stuck to the road and the roads remained dry so it was a good drive.

The skies brightened and the topography changed once we crossed into Idaho and even though the second picture shows storm clouds on either side of the highway we drove right through the middle of them.

We topped up the tank with fuel, at the slowest pump we have ever seen, and joined onto I-84 for a very short trip back into Oregon.

Nice looking weather!

Our plan was to spend tonight in Ontario, OR but the weather was looking okay so we decided to continue another 2.5 hours and cross the Blue Mountain pass, our highest mountain pass of the trip, between La Grande, OR and Pendleton, OR. We figured it would be better to cross this afternoon when the weather is warmer and there is more traffic on the road. We thought this would be a better option than tomorrow morning when the roads wouldn’t have had a chance to warm up and clear off.

This was as bad as it got and it lasted maybe ten minutes.

It turned out to be a great move and seven hours after we left Winnemucca we are settled down in the parking lot at Wildhorse Casino in Pendleton enjoying a drink to celebrate getting through the hardest part of our trip home 🙂 It should be clear sailing from here on in.

Coming down into Pendelton, OR our stop for the night.

Until next time …

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