On the Road Again

Tuesday, February 23, 2021, with the trailer all set to go, we attempted to leave the driveway only to find that the automatic tongue jack was D.E.A.D. It was the motor and, of course, the company that made the part had been sold to another company and, well you know the story.  So we had to purchase an entire new tongue jack (that’s the thing that jacks up the trailer so that you can put it on the truck’s trailer hitch). More money spent on this trip without even leaving the driveway.  


Did I tell you about the discovery the rv repairmen found while they were greasing the ball joints on the trailer wheels?  Probably not.  Yes, it was some horrible thing that had broken in the trailer brake and had to be replaced and, of course, all 4 of the things had to be replaced. Caching --- $1000.  That happened 3 days before departure. 


Anyways, we left home at about 12:30pm (3.5 hours late).  We pulled out and planned to meet our appointed reservation at Boulder Creek Campground in Lone Pine.  The route took us down 395 through Carson City, Minden and Gardnerville and on over to Topaz.  Well before we got to Carson City there appeared a big flashing sign saying “395 closed south of Gardnerville.”  No other information.  We stopped in a parking lot on Topsy Lane and I called the department of transportation in Carson City and they said that, in fact, there had been an accident and that the highway was closed for an indeterminate period of time.  


Regroup and re-plan.  Do we want to wait with a bunch of other travelers for the highway to open or head out in a different direction.  We decided on the later and headed out 50E to 95 alt S.  This would take us longer than the other route were it to be open.  We later found out that the highway was closed for 4 hours so I think we made the right decision – think of all the others that had decided to wait.  What a line of cars that must have involved.  


So our next destination was altered and we decided to overnight in Tonopah. Well along the way we discovered some BLM campgrounds on Walker Lake and made a split second decision to stay there.  We were one of only two rigs within eyesight.  It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful. 


 


We awoke Wednesday morning to the sound of the wind – a harbinger of what was to come, but more about that later.  

 

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