Random Event Day

Day 2, Trip #3 (Take 2)

4/4

Throughout the night, sleeping restfully was very difficult in Tehachapi, CA. The traffic on the street was loud with constant cars and trucks driving by, and hourly, long trains struggling to get to the top of the mountain and traversing the valley. If you live in this town, possibly you get used to the sounds to the point that you don’t “hear the trains” anymore. But as someone who is not used to the sounds and is just visiting for the night, the loud noise can be quite disruptive.

As we woke up in Tehachapi, (read my last blog for more details), we were required, per hotel management, to either disconnect our trailer from our truck if we wanted to park in the hotel parking lot, or park on the busy street in front of the hotel. We parked on the street, and as we were loading our items into our truck and trailer, and again, feeding and cleaning the animals, getting them ready for the long drive, the road was filled with cars who drove at a higher rate of speed than posted. We were loading our luggage and supplies, we looked down the road and at a high rate of speed, driving in our parking lane, a car was headed right for the back of our truck and trailer. We backed up onto the sidewalk and watched as the driver veered suddenly back into the traffic lane passing the car narrowly missing our trailer. Fortunately he didn’t hit us. Unfortunately we were subjected to this danger, because the hotel would not allow us to park in the hotel parking lot.

Before we left the hotel, we ate their free breakfast, which would better be described as bland, cardboard-like bacon and eggs. We need to come up with a better way to start our mornings. The cats were doing well, even though our black cat, Midnight, didn't eat. Dawn, our gray cat, did eat. This isn’t an easy trip for them, as Midnight is nearly 10 years old. Dawn on the other hand, is 3 years old, and is able to adjust well.

We hit the road about 7:45AM, with our intended destination being Flagstaff, AZ. But on this travel day, the weather would be our challenge, so we kept a close eye on the weather. Snow and rain were in the forecast. Oh boy!

There wasn’t much issue as we traversed through the desert. From Tehachapi, through Barstow, Needles into Kingman, AZ.

As we kept watching the weather, and it was really windy, we pulled into Ashfork, AZ at a truck stop. We watched on the weather radar that a large cloud burst was going to come through Ashfork, and snow would be starting at Flagstaff. We sat at the truck stop for about 45 minutes, then decided we would find a hotel room in Ashfork. I looked online and saw there was one hotel with one room available. We drove to the hotel, and the lady said the room that was available hadn't been cleaned, but they were sold out....it was weird!!

We waited at a truck stop for 2 hours, found a vacant room at the Best Western in Williams. When the weather cleared up, we drove up the hill, but it started snowing as we were driving. Fortunately, it was snowing gently, so soft and beautiful. The hotel was wonderful.