Day 26 & 27

What an adventure!  God was truly watching over us today.  We spent the weekend visiting and catching up with old friends and are grateful for their hospitality!  Thank you Rick and Presteen! 

They live in a beautiful part of the Sierra Valley.  It was a much needed respite from our traveling. 

The sunrise (yes, RISE) was glorious! 

We began our journey East to Nevada anticipating a route along Hwy. 36.  However, just miles in on 36 traffic warning lights flashed with info regarding the need for chains on the tires!  What?  All we could see were deep blue skies and sunshine.  But rather than go to far and be turned back, we backtracked a bit and selected a new route adding about 20 minutes to our estimated time, Hwy 70 to Hwy 20.  This went well until we reached the city of Grass Valley. 

McDonald's was being used by all those who had lost power in an unseasonably early, wet, and heavy snowfall.  A bit further East we were turned back as the road had been closed.  A slight detour on Hwy 174 through Colfax led to Interstate 80.  We thought we had made it!  Then the traffic came to a standstill.  It seems that in the West when it snows in the mountains everyone stops to put chains on the tires.  There are many vehicles along the side of the road offering this service for $30/tire to put them on and $15/tire to take them off a few miles down the road!  Thankfully with our vehicle and 4-wheel drive we did not need the chains.  The speed limit was only 30 mph and the snow was still falling. 

The snow laden trees are gorgeous and some appear to have waterfalls flowing from them as the snow abandons the branches. 

Once we went through Donner Pass, and headed down to the lower elevations we again found sun and blue skies.  But we also found frigid temps and high winds.  The 3.5 hour trip turned into 5 hours. 

We arrived safely in

Reno and hit the buffet and are calling it an early night.  It looks like we are in for more bad weather in the weeks to come.  Please keep us in your prayers.