Sidelined

Well, it's officially serious in the High Sierra.

Last night I woke up in time to see a Tweet saying the Interstate was closed.

No problemo, I'll just talk my way on like I always do...

You know what they say about "The best laid plans of mice and men"...

I hit my driveway 40 minutes early...I fired up the Honda Snowblower, and blew the driveway and the berm while warming up the Parts Runner.

I loaded up and rolled down the hill and into the breach...I didn't try to "talk my way on" at Donnergate, opting instead to roll up to the Donner Lake Interchange, where the more realistic CalTrans guys hold sway.

Cool! No CalTrans truck at the DLI Onramp! I'm in there!
As I made the turn up the onramp and entered the Fwy, there was the CalTrans truck with his beacon blazing...I pulled up and rolled down my window. The usually compliant CalTrans Guy only had bad news...he's love to let me on, but avalanche debris was across all three lanes, and there was no estimate of when the lanes might be cleared.

Disappointed, I turned towards home...I thought WTF, and drove into town to do my grocery shopping...sans shopping list...

At 0300, I tried again...back at DLI, the same CalTrans Guy was a little more forthcoming...the Eastbound side was worse...snowcats are having a hard time getting through!

I surrendered...and turned onto I80East...curiously, there were snowcat tracks heading west in the eastbound slow lane!

Back at the DaveCave, I jacked into the WorldWideWeb and beagan a tour of the relevant webcams and websites...TV wasn't yet in Local Mode, and I called Jeweler who was on My Mountain...Jeweler had a good handle on things. I reminded him of the priorities...don't worry about the grooming I told him, keep those roads to the mountaintops open! Graveyard Wrench couldn't get to work either, but the Graveyard Park Guy had stayed on the mountain, so there were plenty of horses on the track.

I even fired up the Police Scanner. I listened in vain for some CalTrans radio traffic...the avalanche scene was around the corner, and FM radio is line of sight...nothing to hear here...move along...

When the local news started at 0430, the story was all weather all the time. They even teased the I-80 won't reopen until midnight "story"...Westbound finally opened a little after noon...we'll try again tonight!