Friday, 22 and Saturday, 23 April 2022
I'd checked the weather forecast after we got here Thursday and found a severe weather warning until Friday at noon. It said to expect 3" - 5" of snow in the passes with up to 8" of snow in high elevations, and wind gusts to 40 - 50 mph. So I knew I might have some difficult traveling on Friday.
When we went for our first walk on Friday morning, there was a lot of wind and a little sleet but nothing really to worry about. Then suddenly at about 5:45, it started snowing heavily. At 8:50 I noticed the snow was coming in sideways, thanks to the wind. We ended up at 10:15 with several inches of the stuff on every surface.
I checked the website showing road conditions (every state seems to operate some version of this - my cousin Mary told me about it when I was in Colorado). That website said, basically, go wherever you want as long as you don't go on ALT US-93, which was the road I'd intended to go on for Friday's drive. That road requires going through a pass that's at 6,010' and, presumably, had plenty of inches of snow in it. I don't mind snow so much, but I was seriously worried about possible ice, which does scare me.
I took a close look at the map and learned that there was no route I could take in any direction that didn't send me over at least one pass higher than 6,000'. If I believed the NV DOT and the US Weather Service, I was stuck.
So I called this campground and the 3 others farther along the road to change my reservations by a couple of days. I figured I'd better not plan to leave on Saturday because Friday night's low was forecast as 22°, which meant ice on the roads for sure, to me.
I may have been overcautious, considering many of the RVers driving many different types of camping equipment left on Friday, with many new ones coming in Friday night, and ditto on Saturday.
But we'd had more snow at 11:30 on Friday morning, and then sudden rain/sleet just after 5:00 PM, followed by more snow that was sticking.
I didn't hear of any ghastly highway accidents so apparently everyone made it to their destinations safely, but I still think I made the right call for me and my equipment and my nerves.
The real problem was that I'd run out of canned cat food that I give straight to Lily at supper and stir into the dogs' dry food then. I was pretty sure giving everybody straight dry food (which is what they get for breakfast and lunch) wasn't really an option, so I opened a can of tuna I had and turned it into meals for both Friday and Saturday. That was a hit.
While I was stuck here, I tried hard to work on blog posts, but once again the campground's internet system wasn't working well and my hotspot was slow and spotty. I only managed to get 2 done.
Both Friday and Saturday nights I got nearly 8 hours of sleep, and I can't remember how long it's been since I got that much. It was great and way overdue.
The campground handout told me that Ely was originally established as a stagecoach stop on the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. It wasn't able to cash in on the mining frenzy until 1906 when copper was discovered in the area. If it's really got more than 3,000 residents now, then it's doing better than most rural Nevada towns.
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