Conspiring winds and lurking tow trucks

I woke early enough this morning  (somewhere between 5 and 7am depending on which clock you look at) to ensure I made it into CA before sunset. I quickly gobbled down a cup of coffee and got the van moving west-ward, but it didn’t take long for the winds and weather to conspire against me.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with a dreadful crosswind, forcing me to drive 200+ miles with the wheel cranked to the left just to hold it on the road. Because of that, my MPG dropped to 13.9 (I use to be happy to see that number, not so much anymore). This morning I was hoping to log in some mileage before the winds kicked up, but no such luck. In fact, by the time I reached Fallon, NV the winds shifted so I was driving directly into them. I simply slowed my pace to compensate and eventually made my way into Carson City (hey, did you know that Carson City is the capitol of NV? I didn’t, until today… thanks California public school system!) where I turned south to connect to Hwy 88 for the quick jump over the Sierras.

Yea… that didn’t work out either. After 34 miles I was forced to turn around to Carson City to buy snow chains only to repeat the 34 miles again… and can you guess what? No chains needed anymore although that didn’t stop oodles of tow-trucks parked on the CA side of the Sierras just waiting to get that call. It was eerie… the tow-trucks lurking in the depth, like gators in the murky water, just waiting for one of us drivers to slide off and smack into a tree… big money! Anyway, I made it over the Sierras without the use of any chains (no one else had them on either) and arrived in time for dinner after 11 hours driving.

New top-score in my MPG; 15.36 from Ely to Carson City, NV. Nice! The total cost of fuel for the 1130 mile drive was $299 (down from $360) for an average of 14.75 MPG… yeehaw!