Still Another Weather Experience - Blizzard Near Flagstaff Arizona...The Move East

Date: January 19, 2017 to January 22, 2017

Location: California to Missouri

Personal Reflections: 

I am destined to experience the worst weather when I am with Dirk, but before we get to that...

Born and raised in California, I never planned on moving away. Never thought I would ever consider it. Then I met Dirk. We saw each other off and on, traveling here and there. I even stayed in Branson Missouri about 4 1/2 months, but move? Nah...

Once we seriously started talking about it, I started making pro/con lists. Too many of them really, but I wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into.

My 3 top reasons for not moving to Missouri were:

• Missing my boys
• The weather
• Fresh fruit & vegetables

I'm sure the first 2 times are self explanatory but let me mention the third. Californians are spoiled when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables. I've traveled enough around the US to see that, really, nothing compares. Over my life, I have often told other Californians that we are so willing to cement over farmlands to build more or bigger cities and that we don't appreciate what we really have. I still feel that way.

But in the end, the decision is relatively simple. I officially retired early in 2016 but continued working as a retired annuitant for most of the year.  It was time to quit working and make the biggest change I could possibly make.

The move date was set for January 19^th. Dirk flew in a few days before to help me finish packing and our friend, Michael, flew in on the 17^th to help us move back. The plan was to hitch a U-Haul trailer to my CRV and Michael and I would take turns driving. Well, to be truthful, Michael would probably be doing most, if not all, the driving.

As the guys packed the trailer, it soon became obvious that I had too much stuff. At first I started culling things out, but then I finally had to admit we needed something bigger. I called U-Haul and told them the situation. Luckily, they had a small truck available so the next morning...yes, the morning we were set to leave, we had to haul the trailer back and transfer the stuff in it to a truck. And of course, it was raining but we got stuff situated and went back to my apartment to finish the packing.

So with Michael driving the truck and me driving the CRV, we finally left Roseville around 11am. I started crying at the Sacramento/Placer county line and didn't stop until we hit the San Joaquin county line. Still couldn't believe I was leaving everything I know. And yes, the doubts were there.

We made it to beautiful Barstow that night and delayed leaving in the morning so Michael could watch Trump's inauguration. A big day for so many Americans who are tired of the "politics as usual" politicians we have in Washington.

We stopped for gas in Lake Havasu and checked the weather. There was snow and lots of it around Flagstaff. Dirk's sister was on her way there for vacation and told us to avoid the area, so we headed south. The idea was to hook up to Interstate 10 and eventually work our way north again, missing the snow storm. Everything was going as planned. After a while, looking at a map, it was decided if we changed course and headed north, we'd be ahead of the storm, so off we went.

It was dark when we hit the mountainous area of Arizona. What we didn't realize is that we had driven into the heart of the storm. I was suspicious when a few "splats" hit the windshield, but it was short-lived and I was relieved. Then we started really climbing and the "splats" came more and more.

I should state that I have NEVER driven in snow of any sort and really never wanted to. I had asked Michael that once we got to Missouri could he give me some lessons on driving in snow. What I meant was driving when the snow stopped, the roads were clear and I HAD to get out for some reason.

Now, here we are and I'm going to get my lesson under fire. The snow started coming down very hard. We called Michael in the truck behind us and I told the guys I wanted to stop. They told me we couldn't or we'd get stuck. This was not just snow...it was a blizzard. I started crying, sobbing really, and didn't stop for the next 3 hours.

Michael and Dirk spent the 3 hours talking to me; telling me exactly how to drive..."go slower"..."speed up a little bit"..."don't worry about anyone going around you"..."you have to move over, the snow plow is coming"..."don't hit your breaks hard"..."apply steady pressure to your breaks" and so on....

I was gripping that steering wheel so hard and my jaw was clenched so tight. I just wanted to stop and barring that, I could picture myself going off the side of the road. Later Michael told me how lucky we were the downgrade was so gradual. He was really worried.

When we finally came out of the mountains, there was still plenty of snow but the highway had been plowed well. We finally stopped and when Dirk and I got to our room, I totally fell apart. They both promised me I would NEVER have to drive in snow again. Exhausted, I fell asleep.

The next morning, I awoke tired and sore from the ordeal. I looked out the window and you could hear the wind come out of my sails...snow. It felt like a huge weight just settled on me. I fell apart...tears falling anew. I told Dirk I wouldn't leave but he said we had to. I told them they could go ahead and I'd stay at the hotel until the weather cleared. I mean, I'm used to driving alone but they wouldn't leave me there. Michael said we had to leave and get a head of the storm that was right behind us. "Never" had arrived sooner than I ever thought it would.

Off we went and we seemed to stay just ahead of it. Stopping for gas at the border of Arizona & New Mexico, the owner of the station told me how New Mexico only has a couple of plows and doesn't maintain the highway. That scared me. There was snow across the desert but somehow we stayed just out of reach. Another gas stop in New Mexico and the snow started coming down. I felt like that damn storm was chasing us until finally we headed a little south and the storm a little north.

I have to admit, I've never seen snow in the desert and it really is beautiful. I didn't mind it when I was able to look out and see it on the landscape. The rest of our trip home to Missouri was uneventful, but I sure was glad to get there and be done with this trip.

Maybe January isn't the best time to move. Michael joked about me wanting to learn how to drive in snow. Truly, I had no business driving but was put in the situation and got through it. But I also know I would not have gotten through it without Dirk and Michael. Michael spent 3 hours directing a hysterical person through a blizzard while Dirk spent 3 hours getting me to hold on and not totally fall apart. Thank you both...you really are the best and I love you both!

So as I was saying at the beginning of this blog, I seem destined to experience the extremes of weather with Dirk. We had the April 2016 tornado scare in Missouri, the October 2016 hurricane in Florida and now, the January 2017 blizzard in Arizona. What's next?...*knocks on wood*

New Experience...The Tornado Warning

Before coming to Missouri, there are some things that this California girl just hasn’t had to deal with. Some things are great such as how friendly and welcoming most people are and how green everything is for most of the year and even, the lack of constant traffic.

But there are also some bad things that I’ve never dealt with. High humidity is one…sucks the energy right out of you and you better be comfortable with sweating all the time. Air conditioner is my very best friend when the humidity climbs. Tourist season in Branson…the main strip is lined in cars that only move about 30 MPH…if you’re lucky. I’m learning the back roads that, in any other season, would be the long way around but are life savers when the tourists come to town.

One thing that surprised me was the intensity of the storms here. Frightened at first, I am slowly getting used to them. The lightening lights up the sky while the thunder rolls through the Ozark hills, lasting a long time. I remember the first big storm at night. A huge flash that registers somewhere in your brain as you sleep and then BOOOOM! The entire building shook. Dirk put a hand on me and reassuringly said “I’m right here”.

And the rain that accompanies these storms! Torrential rains, or at least seems like that to me. Rain coming down so hard you can see it rolling down the streets in sheets. And hitting your roof so hard there is a constant dull roar with periods of even harder rain that makes you stop and yet once again, get up and look out the window and wonder where all the water is going to go.

But last night I got to “experience” another thing that happens in the mid-west that this California girl has never been around…the tornado warning. I’ve been in Branson when there has been tornado watches and when I first got here, I asked Dirk, “what do I do if there is a tornado?”. He looked at me and, teasing, said “get in a doorway?”…funny guy and I rolled my eyes reminding him that’s what we do in earthquakes.

The Branson area is in the Ozarks and very hilly. When Dirk lived in Hollister, his apartment was lower and he, and others, told me not to worry about tornados. One because tornados tend to like flatter landscape and IF one was to occur here, it would “skip” along the hill tops.

Tornado Siren

Well, our new condo is on a hilltop and one of the tornado sirens is less than 100 feet away. I had noticed the siren before and laughingly told one of my friends that if it went off, I’d probably sh*t myself.

Ok, so now I know I won’t actually do that!

For my California family and friends…the difference between a watch and a warning.... A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for the development of tornados in the area. Stay aware of what is going on and be ready to take action quickly. A warning means a tornado has been sighted or indicated by radar and there is imminent danger to life and property. It means take immediate action to be safe, moving to an inner room on the lowest level of the building you are in.

1st Rotation Sighted

So, back to last night. We’re sound asleep when the siren starts wailing. And let me tell you…it’s LOUD! Dirk gets up and goes out on our balcony and our phones light up with warnings from the National Weather Service. I get up and I’m standing there saying “I don’t know what to do”. What I didn’t know until later was that Dirk saw the sky had a greenish tint to it, something many people describe before a tornado that scientifically has to do with light waves and color spectrum, blah, blah, blah.

The wind was whipping around and Dirk calmly said “get some jeans on” and then he was holding a jacket out for me telling me to put it on. Like any other woman, I grabbed my purse but also his glasses and phone. Dirk closed the doors to our balcony and led me to the front door. Closing it, but leaving it unlocked, he took my hand and we walked downstairs to the main level of the complex that leads to the garages.

Warning Area & Approaching Storm

We stood there for a while. Dirk holding my hand and me whimpering “what are we going to do”. Then the wind really picked up and the lights started to flicker and went out for a moment. Dirk put the hood of my jacket over my head, later telling me it was to protect me from any lightbulbs that might break overhead. And then he buried my head into his chest.

That’s when it got even scarier. Thunder, just a constant boom…rolling through the hills. The lightening was coming one flash right after the other and I could hear the wind howling. Like a little kid, I told Dirk “I don’t want to do this anymore”. And I will admit that I was scared and crying. 

Dirk then led me down to the lowest level in the complex, almost underground and reinforced by brick. I have to say, I felt safer there and Dirk held me until the sirens stopped and the major part of the storm seemed to have passed.

We came back up to our condo and took a deep breath. It was then that Dirk articulated how nervous he had been. Thank god, he didn’t show it. I had been scared we would get separated somehow and he was scared that I would say “The heck with this, I’m going back to California.”

Not that the thought didn’t cross my mind!

Victory & Lincoln Highways...West Wendover, Nevada

DATE:  October 6, 2015

SITE:  Victory & Lincoln Highways

LOCATION:  West Wendover Blvd., West Wendover, Elko Co., Nevada  89883

There were two plaques placed here. It seems the more significant of the two is for the Victory Highway but I recognized the other much more…the Lincoln Highway.

The plaque for the Victory Highway states…

“The Victory Highway monument is a representation of the earlier county bronze eagle markers of the 1920’s. Original eagle markers were to be located at each county line with a plaque dedicated to the sons and daughters who served their country in World War I, sacrificing their lives for our freedom. Only five original bronze eagles are knows to be in existence, two in Kansas and three in California. The Victory Highway is a near-forgotten relic of the early 20^th century roadways, a path traversed by early auto-pioneers from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The road you are standing on today was completed in 1925 and used until the 1940’s. Highway U.S. 40 replaced the Victory Highway to the south, which is now known as Wendover Boulevard. The arch represents the Victory Highway sign, used at the only documented official ceremony opening the Victory Highway. The ceremony took place on June 25, 1925, just east of Wendover on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Officiating were Utah Governor George Dern, Nevada Governor James Scrugham, and Secretary of Agriculture William Jardine.”

“The Victory Highway Association was incorporated in Topeka, Kansas, late in 1921 to locate and mark a transcontinental highway. Victory Highway, dedicated to American Forces who died in World War I, traversed the United States from New York City to San Francisco. In 1925, the Transcontinental route offered a panorama of the mid-section of the country 3,205 miles, this great motorway follows the same course, or one closely parallels, as that of the earliest settlers of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri valleys, crossing 14 states in all. Less than 14 percent or 788 miles of the highway was unimproved.”

“From Salt Lake City, the Victory Highway skirts around Great Salt Lake over the famous Wendover Cutoff. The crossing of the salt flats between Salt Lake City and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border was costly, involving five years of labor. The remarkable engineering feat bridged what was once a great obstacle to transcontinental motor travel, the Bonneville Salt Flats. This accomplishment blazed a new auto-route across northern Nevada to Reno, parallel to the Lincoln Highway to the south. In the early mid-twenties, only 81 miles of the 371 miles of the Victory Highway across Utah were paved, 107 miles consisted of gravel surfacing, and 183 miles were relatively unimproved. The Victory Highway was designated Route No. 40 by state and federal highway officials shortly after the Wendover Cutoff was completed, and the Victory Highway was used until it was replaced in the 1940’s.”

“An original culvert to the east of this marker still exists today. When a new portion of Highway 40 was constructed in the 1940’s, this section of the Victory Highway, along with the culverts, was left intact. Constructed of stone and galvanized steel, these culverts are a testament to the skills of road engineers and rock masons of the early 19^th century.”

“In 1921, the federal government passed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. A similar act, passed in 1916, provided matching funds to the states for highway construction. Unlike the 1916 act, the 1921 act required the states to identify seven percent of its total mileage as “primary”; only these roads would be eligible for federal funds. In the ten years prior to the 1921 act, the United States went from having one named highway to having an unorganized and confusing system of multiple-named highways. As a result, a numbered highway system was formed to organize the national highways across the United States. In most states, the Lincoln Highway was the obvious choice as a federal road, but there were a few exceptions, the greatest challenge being Utah. Despite numerous reports and heavy lobbying by the Lincoln Highway Association, the federal government selected the Wendover route or “Victory Highway” (Route No. 40) as the federal road across Utah and Nevada.”

The plaque for the Lincoln Highway states…

“In 1912, roads were dirt, bumpy and dusty in dry weather; impassable in wet weather. Asphalt and concrete roads were yet to come. To get from coast-to-coast, it was much easier to take the train. The Lincoln Highway Association conceived the first improved automobile road across the United States of America. Inspired by the Good Roads Movement, the Lincoln Highway ran from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, traversing 14 states; New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. This paved the way for the development of a nationwide highway network that is now unsurpassed. As the first automobile road across America, the Lincoln Highway brought great prosperity to hundreds of cities, town and villages along the way. The first officially recorded mileage in 1913 was 3,389 miles; by 1924 the road was improved and realigned, covering only 3,142 miles. A road was “improved” if it was just graded; few even had gravel in the early years of the association. One of the hardest fought realignments took place in the deserts of Utah, west of Sal Lake City. A new route, the Goodyear Cutoff, was surveyed, and prepared for construction by the Lincoln Highway Association. The Utah State government promoted a route directly west of Salt Lake City to Wendover, Nevada, as the route to San Francisco. This course crossed miles of salt desert, which was often submerged under water. The Wendover road, favored by Utah, was part of another named highway, the Victory Highway. Like the Lincoln, it claimed New York and San Francisco as its endpoints. Northern Californians favored the Victory for economic reason; travelers along the Victory would almost certainly end their trips in San Francisco.”

“Lincoln Highway Markers   The association ceased activity at the end of 1927. Its last major activity was to mark the highway not as a route from one destination to another, but as a memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, the roads namesake. On September 1, 1928, thousands of boy scouts fanned out along the highway. At an average of about one monument per mile, 3,000 concrete markers were installed with a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription, “This highway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln” were placed along the road from New York City to San Francisco.”

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:

I found an old magazine on Google Books from 1922 that the president of the Victory Highway Association had written an article in. Being me, I couldn’t stay with just that article but perused several months’ worth. Interesting reading about many of the roads and the problems, some that were overcome, some just noted while building the road system in the U.S. and it has great pictures. It’s amazing what those first roads were like with some totally impassable at different times of the year. Roads could be paved in some fashion but most were more rudimentary than that. Work on the roads varied too. In some places, there might be one or two “government” workers; while many times locals who wanted roads to go by their town or place of business might get out there and “make” a road.

I liked this line from one of the magazines…”the contrast in roads typifies the contrast in social and economic standing of communities. The roads are the barometers of civilization”

The plan for the Victory Highway was to build a road from New York to San Francisco, using only roads already improved or likely to be improved within a short time frame. As I said before, road quality really varied. While investigating the best route, there was no real decisions to be made going from New York City to St. Charles, Missouri where the road was paved except for a tiny section of gravel road in New Jersey.

The first hurdle to deal with was the sticky mud of Missouri and then Kansas which had little to no paving. Colorado was in good shape with gravel along the route and California had the best roads of all. Although the route picked by the association from the state line to Sacramento was not paved, it was scheduled to be completed in a short timeframe.

The big problems were Utah and Nevada where travel was difficult through the desert and the route was often no more than a track in the sand to follow. For 3 months out of the year, the route in Utah is covered in water for about 40 miles. There were discussions over the best way to get over the salt flats with the idea of a raised road winning out.

This was the first time in history that one state helped another state finance projects. By 1922, cities in Northern California raised $50,000.00 to finance the building of the Wendover Cutoff. Fifteen years later, California also financed part of the highway through Nevada.  Not being shortsighted, California understood what it meant to get tourists to the state.

Numbered highways were introduced in 1926 and The Victory Highway Association continued to promote tourism. With the decline in “named” highways, the Association itself changed its name to U.S. Highway 40 Association.

As for the Lincoln Highway, I was pleased to see the reference to it since I came upon another one of the markers when I was exploring in the Newcastle area near home. Again, it’s interesting how things seen in one place link themselves to other places I visit.

There were huge political arguments over the best route…Victory vs. Lincoln with some of the decisions having to wait for politicians to be defeated or for the weather to finally teach developers a lesson. Some big names threw themselves behind one side or another…the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company gave $75,000 for a cutoff to be built south of Wendover while the city of San Francisco threw their weight into a northern route; that being the Victory Highway.

When the possibility of federal funding came, both plans were to be presented but when the plan was submitted, only the northern route, Victory Highway. Despite protests from the Lincoln Highway group, the U.S. Bureau of Roads approved the northern route and funding was secured.

Today, neither highway in known except as part of history although both roads exist as part of U.S. Route 40.