Life in the Right Lane: Tehachapi

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Tehachapi - Rain and snow.

Up this morning early and the sky had cleared out. Rained most of night so ground got a good soaking. Wind still strong and temps cold.

We headed out. 3 miles back to interstate at Yermo where we knew w could find a "decent" gas price for the desert. Filled up and headed west. Fire at was for snow and high winds on tehachapi pass. Sraddha drive over the desert as the winds really threw us around. Some tricky cross winds. Hit us as we circled around Mojave town. The windmills were doing a brisk business.

We stopped at Kramer junction where 395 and 58 cross to ask some eastbound truck drivers about pass conditions. Everyone said the winds were a factor but roads passable with no ice which was our biggest concerne since the temp in the Internet said 32 degrees. Anything above freezing was fine with us. The alternative route through Tejon Pass I-5 was a lot longer and had fog issues.

She pulled over just past Mojave and I hopped into the drivers seat. Started up the grade and found some snow. Fortunately we had waited a whole before heading out so temps were warming up a bit.

We passed Monolith cement factory. (see pic below) and through tehachapi. Beautiful snow covered hills greeted us and the roads, while wet, proved not icy.

As we descended Tehachapi pass and the famous tehachapi loop we saw 6 trains in process of climbing grade. Sraddha grabbed the iPhone camera and got a pic of one of them.

Snow turned to rain and rain dried out as we entered Bakersfield. We drove over to buttonwillow for our favorite salvadoran restaurant and also gassed up. Back in the Valley again.

As I write this fr the passenger seat, we are almost to our Lodi campground destination. Only 100 miles from he. We will relax by the delta tonight and enjoy one more night on the road. Tomorrow we will stop en route to do some shopping and be home leisurely by late afternoon.

More blog posts forthcoming to catch up on some missed spots. Charlie the RV will get a new home after being on the road 5 months. She will be close by and we will begin to consider next adventure.