Harris was looking forward to another spring training with baseball buddy Rick. Unfortunately for Harris, Rick is into Belgrade HS Girls basketball and the team has made it to the state tourney which means that Rick will be delayed for a week supporting the home team. Harris will have to settle for going to the games solo until the girls win state.
Spending the night in Yreka
The line up to head north up the pass
He left on a Tuesday morning after bidding Judy farewell and with the weather forecast predicting snow in Southern Oregon/Northern Calif. The plan was to beat the snow over the pass into California. He almost made it. Near the top of the pass snow was falling and sticking to the roadway. The closer he came the more there were 18 wheelers pulling off the roadway to chain up. As Harris neared the summit, there were several trucks jackknifed in the middle of the roadway. At 3 miles per hour he threaded his way around them and gave thanks that Judy was not there to witness the adventure. It was very quiet at the summit and Harris felt some of what a mountain climber must feel when victorious at the top of a difficult ascent.
And more trucks lined up
Feeling great and grinning to himself as he went down the other side, he entered California. At the state inspection station a gal told him that there was an accident further down the highway at Weed. She suggested to try to get past Yreka where the last pass that can have snow was located. Harris was 95 percent through the “ mood changed when he spotted a trooper directing all traffic off the freeway into the town of Yreka. Dang! Off he went and joined the other rigs finding spots in the parking lots to spend the night. The night was COLD and the heater was continuously turning on to keep up with the cold. At 6 AM he joined the trucks onto I-5 south heading toward Weed. Twenty miles later there was a flotilla of trucks pulled off to the side and a flashing sign “CHAINS REQUIED”.
Jeri, Gerta, Jim, Harris,Bill
The choice was wait and see if the restriction is lifted or head back and buy some chains. Since Harris was due to see his high school friend John in Salinas that day and snow was forecast for that day and the next, he headed 20 miles back to buy some chains. Forty miles later he was back at the same spot joining the trucks in chaining up. During the 10 mile ascent over the pass the road was great about an 8 on a 10 point scale. He had to continually slow down to stay at 30 mph. There might have been an inch of snow on the road and after the experience last night (that was a 2/3 on that 10 point scaled in terms of how easy the road was to drive) Harris felt cheated in having to buy chains for Howie. On the way south of Weed there was a ten mile plus line of trucks and cars being inspected for chains as they traveled northward. It was great to be past the snow zone and headed toward Salinas.
John, Mom, Harris, Dad
He pulled into Salinas around 7 that night where he met John’s brother’s wife Jerri. John’s brother Jim came home for dinner at 7:30. Since Harris hadn’t seen Jim for 30+ years, Harris felt like he was meeting 2 new folks for the first time. John pulled in about 2 hours later and everyone caught up on everyone else’s life. The next day Harris went to visit his “2nd set of parents, Bill and Greta who took high school senior Harris stayed behind in Thousand Oaks when his family moved to Seattle. Harris also found out that the water pump in Howie stopped pumping water so he had to find some help with fixing it. Jim took Harris and John for a tour of the TV station where he is the meteorologist in Salinas and wowed them with his on air skills as Jim provided the viewers with the weather at 5 and 6 PM.
John's family icon
On Friday morning Harris discovered that the only place that had the part he needed was in San Bernadino which was 400+ miles away and closed at 6 PM, he had to cut the visit short and hit the road 10AM . Jim and Jeri were terrific hosts and it was nice to catch up with John and see what great shape Bill and Greta were in at 92 years. They extracted a promise from Harris to see them at least once more “before they go” and to bring Judy.
It’s now 9PM and I’m in the Camping World parking lot after putting in the replacement part. McDonalds is just across the street so Harris can upload a blog update (finally). Then it’s off to sleep and see if he can catch a game tomorrow in Peoria.
total miles 1400
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