Friday May 12th 2017

About six thirty this morning the sound of rain on the roof woke me. This is not a sound I want to hear on a travel day. It turned out to only last a few minutes, but enough to kick me into gear.

The weather forecast on the morning TV news called for the front to pass followed by clearing and less wind. I liked the less wind part so started to slowly get ready to travel. The sun was out and the gusts had diminished by the time I raised the jacks and hit the road at ten. What I hadn’t taken into account was that the front was moving east at a slower speed than I was heading east on Interstate 80.

Shortly after I passed east of Fernley NV, the last significant population center for a hundred miles, I encountered strong winds. The people in charge of road signs were nice enough to put up a sign that said Warning Sever Winds possible Next 14 miles. It was too late to do anything about it other than keep going. There weren’t any exits or pull offs for more than 14 miles. Besides, I didn’t know enough to take action. There was a triple tow FedX truck about a quarter to half a mile in front of me. I watched it behave like a snake going down the road at times. The front and rear went to the left and the middle went to the right, then the other way. I just got pushed out of my lane every time a gust came up. There was only a little traffic on the road, so I had room to maintain control. The wind was also causing things outside the rig to flop or whistle that have never been known to in the past. This was the worst wind I’ve encountered driving the motorhome.

The problems with the wind lasted for more than the advertised fourteen miles, maybe fifty or so miles. The sun was out in the windy area. It stabilized at manageable level when the sky darkened. I had caught up with the cold front. It never really rained on me. In a couple of areas the road was wet, but for the most part the precipitation was not reaching the ground.

Site 63 at the Winnimucca KOA

Mountain view out my front window.

I stopped for the night in Winnamucca NV, at the northern most point on Interstate 80 in Nevada. It is a little less than half way across the state. I traveled for a little over three hours with one stop to fill the gas tank. It got extra windy here after I was setup, but now as night sets in it is almost calm outside. Tomorrow I will move east again. Hopefully, I will not catch up with the front again.