40° / 69° Sunny ☀
TODAY’S RV PARK: San Benito RV Resort
OUR RATING: 3 Stars – a rustic campground tucked between hills of vineyards and farmlands, cell signal is poor but tolerable, nearby towns are fantastic and 1 hour drive from many awesome adventures
PRICE: (Free) Thousand Trails resort
TRIP MILES DRIVEN: 21,895
We never made it to Lake Tahoe. The National Weather service had severe wind advisories in effect for the area we were to travel to. Beyond his fear of heights, Steve’s healthy fear of high winds had us re-thinking our ambitious plans to get to the Northwest.
As we explored our options, comparing driving and travel costs with park fees, it made the most sense to go back to a Thousand Trails park in California, and wait out the storm. Then head up north to Washington, Goal post #2.
That’s just what we did, but it wasn’t without a bit of driving peril. As we headed south down Nevada Hwy 95, hoping to have outrun the winds that were north of us, we ended up right back in the middle of the winds!
Troopers had just closed the highway and all “high profile” vehicles were diverted to a dirt lot, to sit and wait.
There’s a YouTube channel that we are addicted to, HappilyEverHanks , made by the most goofball couple ever about RV life. In a episode this past winter, they got caught in a wind storm and shared an app called Windy which shows real time and forecasted wind speed and directions. We’ve used this in the past and it seems pretty accurate.
We watched this app like a hawk while parked in this dirt lot on the side of the road with other RVs and lots of Semi Trucks. The thought of hanging out in this lot for the next several hours seemed daunting, especially with the wind rocking the RV.
I ran into the RV and did a hurry clean up, keeping the driver’s side slides closed, opening up just the couch side. Steve came in with the dogs and we all lunched and then napped the windy afternoon away.
At sunset, as the Windy app predicted, the winds died down and we were able to continue rounding the Sierra Nevadas.
We overnighted in Bakersfield, and woke up Easter morning to a beautiful 72° sunny morning. We hooked up after a delightful morning brunch and made our way north, back to Hollister.