Back Twin Falls

We made it back to Twin Falls, Idaho last night around 8pm

We hit the road from Casa Grande Arizona at 5am.

Due to a winter storm warning for central Nevada, and high wind warnings

for most of the route we decided to just hit the road and get north out

of the worst of it before it got bad.

It was a quick 1,700 mile round trip.

We left Twin Falls heading south the morning after a light snowfall.

The fresh powder dusted the mountains and the sagebrush.

It was 840 miles - almost all of it on 2-lane US 93.

Further south in Nevada you can see the road stretches out before you forever.

It is well over 100 miles between towns, and most of the towns are 1 or two blocks long

with just a few buildings...

Very remote and wide-open country for sure.

After hooking up the Monty and getting a nights sleep it was back on the road.

Headed north our forecast was for winds in excess of 40mph.

South of Las Vegas the winds started to pick up in earnest.

At times it was a tailwind which was fine.   

Other times a cross wind and two-handed driving fighting to keep the rig between the lines.

On the way North we battled our way thru dust storms.

I snapped this photo of one off to our left.

At times the visibility dropped significantly as we ran thru the dust..

Further north in central Nevada the clouds lowered and soon were

driving thru solid rain storms - in the desert!

Soon that rain changed to snow...

Keeping an eye on the outside temps allowed us to continue to push on.

Playing a game of Weather Cat and Mouse we wondered

if the temps would hold out long enough for us to get north of the winter storm warning area.

What I did not want to do is get stuck 100 miles between towns in the snow.

We did have plenty of propane and food just in case.

The Sirius Weather Radar in the truck was a great help keeping me appraised of the big picture.

When we got to Jackpot, NV near the Idaho border I knew we were home free

since the terrain ahead would start to descend off of the high plateau and

with lower altitudes would come warmer temperatures

Arriving in Twin Falls I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt getting out of the rig

in 30mph winds and 38 degrees.

Today we just stayed put.

This morning my phone rang and it was our buddy John.

He knew from the blog that we were in Twin Falls and he was passing thru so

we got together for lunch and some sight seeing.

These are the Shoshone Falls, just downstream from the Twin Falls that the town was named after.

They are 14' higher than Niagara Falls.

This is looking down the canyon of the Snake River.

Further down stream US 93 is carried over the Snake on a bridge that is over 300'

above the river.   It is used every weekend by base jumpers but unfortunately the winds

continued to howl today so it was too windy.

That would have made for some cool photos.

Instead I'll leave you with this "cool" photo - taken by John.

Tomorrow we'll move the Monty 6 hrs west to Walla Walla, Washington.

Next day we'll deadhead back here to pick up the doghouse and do the 12hr

round trip in one shot.

Then the Doghouse will almost be home....   for now.