Travel in Northern California

After flying up early Thursday morning from San Diego to Sacramento, I spent Thursday evening at my parents' house in El Dorado. It was nice to sit for an evening with my mom and dad, talk, and watch the NCAA tournament together. I was planning on leaving for Susanville on Friday afternoon, but with reports of a snow storm coming in, I thought it was better to leave in the morning. I took the picture of these turkeys as I left their neighborhood. We were worried about getting caught in a snowstorm and I thought I was really in for it when it started sleeting on I 80 just east of Auburn. However, the weather cleared up and I drove from Truckee through Reno and almost to Susanville in the sunshine. The wind was trying to knock me off the road, but it was a pretty pleasant drive. However, I saw what looked like a fog ahead right over Susanville.

Just as I turned on to Highway 36 in Susanville the snowflakes began to slowly fall. I called Pastor Jake Ngirablosch and got the directions to the hotel where I was staying. By the time I got there the snow was a little thicker and by the time I got checked in and in to the room it was coming down thick and heavy. We had dinner that night at the hotel and I am glad I was able to just hang out (and watch the NCAA tourney again) at the hotel that evening.

The next couple days involved a lot of driving in the snow. Fortunately I only had to drive a few blocks on Saturday to teach at the conference. You can see how much snow accumulated on my car during the night. The snow came down heavy all day but we were warm inside the church and I only had to drive back to the hotel that day. Sunday we did have a pretty harrowing drive through the snow to Chester.

On Monday morning when I left Susanville, a snow storm was predicted, but I left in the sunshine and on clear, dry roads. This was true for most of the trip. However, when I drove into the Lassen Park area on Highway 44, the temperature suddenly dropped about 10-12 degrees and I was hit with a snow flurry. I drove about 1/2 hour through it and it quit as suddenly as it started. I did a little sliding around on the road but came through without a scratch on me or on the car.  The way the snow suddenly stopped was weird. One moment there was snow flying and all over the ground, and the next the snow became rain and there was no snow on the ground, like there was an invisible line the snow could not cross. I was thankful to get down to Joyce's parents' place in Redding in one piece.