What a Day it Was

We didn't arrive in Fremont, California, until nearly 10:30 p.m. Pacific time. For those of us still on Central time, it was a late night. The boys fell asleep somewhere around Sacramento and woke up about two miles from our hotel.

And speaking of hotel, we are now officially spoiled. After three nights in rooms that had only the basics (if that) -- which was all we needed since we were just passing through -- we now have a room with a wall of windows and a thermostat and real-glass glasses and room service. Wow.

So for the trip: we could tell it was going to get rough even before we got to Reno.
















And in fact we passed through a weird isolated snow storm:
















We bought chains because the weather report was indicating some stretches of road required chains or snow tires. What we got were these cable "chains," which the helpful clerk at Checker Auto Parts in Elko said were easier to put on than the older version. No sooner had we left Elko than we reached one of those stretches. So here I am outside a gas station in the middle of nowhere, trying to read horrible directions to put on chains for the first time ever. After about twenty minutes, I was near tears and praying for help. The boys were watching a video in the van. Suddenly a gentleman appeared from the gas station and said he'd been watching me for the past few minutes and figured maybe I needed some help. He helped me get them on (not as easy as the clerk made it seem) and we headed back onto I-80.

Less than a mile later, the signs warning that chains or snow tires were required had been turned off and the road looked clear. We pulled off at the next exit and I spent the next twenty minutes taking the darn things off. It was a learning experience. By the time I was done, my arms were covered in dirty slush and my gloves were sopping. I dried them using the van's fancy built-in dashboard heater:
















When we got to Reno, we stopped for gas and a bathroom break, and lucky us -- we got to drive under the "Biggest Little City in the World" arch! Yoni: "That was great!" Daniel: "Super good!" Both boys were entranced by two spheres the size of buildings. We're still not sure what they were.

We headed out of Reno and into the Sierra Nevadas, hoping for an easy ride. Ha. ha Ha HaHA Ha Ha HA!

As we approached Donner Summit, we were informed that chains were required over the summit. There were places to pull over and put chains on, so I picked one and spent another thirty minutes getting sopping wet and dirty. At least I knew what I was doing this time. A mile later, we passed a pull-out location where there were assistants to help with putting chains on. Apparently I have to do things the hard way. They checked my chains and gave them a thumbs-up. I may not know what I'm doing, but I do it good.
















By the time we reached the summit, it was dark. Really dark. And starting to snow. I remembered stopping at the summit's rest area as a kid. But I never saw it like this. And those glowing dots? Snow.
















And so, in the dark, in the snow, with chains on, we headed down the mountain.
















Remember in Star Wars how it looked when the Millenium Falcon entered hyperspace?














That's exactly what it looked like driving down the mountain while it snowed. Heavily. I don't have any actual photos because, well, I was doing everything humanly possible to stay on the road and not get run over by all of the speed-happy Californians who were zipping past at over 50 m.p.h.

Halfway down the mountains, chains were no longer required, so we pulled off to remove them. But the area wasn't lit so I had my flashlight in my mouth as I got intimately reacquainted with all four tires. Again slush and sopping cold fingers. A van full of young adults pulled in front of me to take off their chains and about six people got out. Within minutes, they had their chains off and two of them came over and asked if I needed help. I gratefully (very gratefully) accepted and they got two tires done in the time it took me to finish one. Whoever they are, thank you!

By Sacramento, the boys fell asleep after watching Beauty and the Beast about four times in a row. This was the first movie they watched all trip in English. Mostly they were watching:

דמבו הפל המעופץ
פו הדוב
אלאדין
הדוב רופרט
מלך האריות

10 points for each movie you can identify (leave your answer in the comments)!

Oh, and then there was the pickup truck that lost its camper shell in the middle of the freeway. In my lane. That woke me up! If there was any concern about my getting drowsy, that took care of it.

Now a bit from the yeladim.

Yoni: There was a big ginormous snowstorm in themountains. All the days on the way to California, there were a lot of interesting sights. And now we are in California and there are still a lot of interesting sights to see. We watched a lot of movies on the way. You will see them listed in Hebrew up above.

Daniel: The snowstorm was called a blizzard. We're going to stay in a hotel for a while in California. Maverick gave me a new shirt. My shirt is called Yu-Gi-Oh! It's orange. We got very very cool beds which has got very very pretty covers. And our beds are the same. And Yoni's wearing his Hawaii shirt.

The boys took a bunch of photos along the way (until they filled up the card) and later (today maybe?) we'll upload them to a Flickr account and post the URL so you can see what they captured.

More from cloudy California later!