Palm trees, sunshine, beaches, endless summer...that's what everyone thinks of when they think of California. The picture on the left is Fall River Mills, CA. I lived there for a time when I was little and it was beautiful - and snowy. California can and does get lots of snow, even Southern California. My parents knew that already, but they wanted to be in Idaho for Christmas. They've made the trek for the last 15 years and have only had what my Dad would consider "white knuckle" conditions on one or two occasions. ***My Dad always says he's a race car driver so nothing bothers him while he's in a vehicle - it may not bother him but it scares the hell out of the rest of us*** So yesterday, with vehicle packed, they left to make part one of their journey which is about a 7 hour (5.5 if you are riding with my Dad) trip from Camarillo to Hawthorne, NV. Less than 2 hours into their fateful first leg - in the Santa Clarita Valley, which for those of you who don't know is high desert (and I do mean desert!) - they ran into snow, lots of snow. So much snow in fact that the road, Hwy 14, was closed. Along with Hwy 14, every other northerly route out of California was closed due to heavy snowfall and CalTrans lack of substantial equipment to clear the roads in a timely manner.
Needless to say, they had to turn around and go home - which should've taken about an hour and 45 minutes. It ended up taking about 3 times that long due to the bumper to bumper traffic of the other holiday travelers who were turned away.
I spoke to them this morning and they were going to try the trip again. They had spent most of the early morning hours looking at traffic and weather reports online and on TV and decided it was time to go. Fortunately, I spoke to them a few hours ago and they had made it to Hawthorne. We are receiving intermittent snow showers here currently, so I hope that doesn't hinder the second part of their trip tomorrow.
Moral of this story: California can be a winter wonderland just like anywhere else that receives snowfall. However, if you are looking to escape the white stuff - you'd better bring your own snowplow or you won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
2 comments:
The Weaver family of Meridian, Idaho left at 9 pm last night and after a slight detour through Poky (short for Pocetello) they made it to Bingham Canyon, Utah (grammy's house) at 5 am. Grammy stayed up (keeping herself awake by playing many hours of ZUMA) until 4 am but her eyes were so badly crossed at that point she stumbled off to bed. Papa, getting up for work at 5:30 am foumd the Weavers all snuggled into bed and told Grammy so she rolled over and went back to sleep. Please let us kmow when the senior Frates pull into Caldwell. We love you all! Paulie
Hi Paulie - The old folks make it safe and sound on Saturday afternoon. The did have some very trecherous roads through Oregon but still made it in about 7 hours. We get to celebrate the old man's 66th birthday tomorrow with a fresh winter storm warning :-) Mom and Dad say "Hi"
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