It’s a new year and most of us aren’t sorry to see 2021 pass into the history books. I can’t say it was personally a terrible year but it wasn’t the best year of my life either. From a work perspective I was as busy as I have ever been - too busy at times. I certainly made up for the first few years I was in real estate, 2008-2012 were all fairly lean years, so I can’t complain about that. I did catch Covid in the third quarter of 2021, certainly not a highlight of the year. Mainly, I missed my friends and having people around. And Christmas felt very sad without any holiday parties for the second year running - and I am not that big a party person!

We had a quiet Christmas this year; our granddaughter spent this year with her other grandparents in Southern California. I did minimal decorating - not even a tree this year. We opened presents on Christmas morning, watched an excellent action film mid-day (Riders of Justice, a Danish film that I highly recommend) and then went to my brother’s home for Christmas dinner and presents with them. We also played Farkle, a silly dice game that provides a lot of fun.

A picture of Van and I as we leave Boonville — Van and I outside of Boonville the morning of our departure.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were usurped by our travel plans this year. We originally planned to leave on the 4th of January for our Utah ski vacation but due to the incoming storms to the Sierra’s, we opted to leave on the 1st; we wanted to get over Donner Pass during the day in the middle of a few days of clear weather. We spent all of Friday packing the motor home, Cookie, plus prepping the house for the folks staying there while we are away (family and friends to keep my mom company). Our neighbors invited us for a glass of bubbly to celebrate the New Year so we did that and then had dinner before finishing up the packing.

We hit the road at 8:30 AM on New Year’s Day. It was a beautiful day to drive, sunny, clear and very light traffic. With the goal of simply being over the Pass during the middle of the day, we were not in any rush and opted to take Highway 20 as the more scenic option to our destination. We made it to just north of Grass Valley when suddenly, about a quarter mile before it was closed, we were given warning that 20 was closed to through traffic. We were detoured back to Highway 174 to Colfax, where we were able to join up with I-80 East. The drive to that point was beautiful and the detour was also beautiful. It was the most difficult part of the drive (for me, as the driver) as the road was narrow and there was ice on each side. Neither of us had ever been over that road and it is something we want to do again - in a car or in nicer weather.

The drive up I-80 and over the pass was perfect - very light traffic, beautifully plowed roads and stunning scenery. So much snow! The original plan had been for me to drive until we got close to the Pass and for Van to take over, but the conditions were so nice I keep driving until we reached Sparks, NV.

In Sparks we met up with friends at a bar and grill for an early dinner. We hadn’t seen them since pre-Covid and it was really good to see them. It was also good to get out and stretch my legs, have a cocktail and know my driving was done for the day. Our break was short as we wanted to get a little farther down the road before stopping for the day. We made it as far as Winnemucca and, without any reservations, we ended up parked near a Flying J truck stop for the night.

Views of snowy hills as we drive through Nevada.

My biggest concern about this trip was the cold. My fear was that we would freeze inside Cookie. Well, it turned out that we did not freeze - in fact, at one point I was so hot I threw the covers off of me. We burned a LOT of propane that night - it was 1°F outside - but we were a toasty 68°F inside. In preparation for the cold I purchased several twin-sized egg crate mattress toppers to use as insulation and we had placed these in the large windows at the front of the RV plus another couple in front of the door; motor home doors are notoriously poorly insulated. These definitely helped, however, when we pulled the foam away from the windows we found that they were completely iced over - inside!

We arrived in Salt Lake City around 3:30PM. I fell asleep for about an hour so I missed some of the scenery, but what I did see was very pretty. Salt flats and snowy mountains all around. The road was in good shape, with no snow or ice. Speed limits are 80 MPH, which we are technically allowed to do as we are a single vehicle, but given the size of Cookie, we tend to keep it under that. We are camped at a KOA in town; from what I have seen it looks nice and the light rail is right outside the entrance, making a trip into downtown easy.

A picture of Cookie, our RV, in Salt Lake City. — Cookie parked at the KOA in Salt Lake City.

It is significantly warmer here than it was in Winnemucca - it’s 20° outside now, at 8:00AM MST. Our cold water lines are flowing as we left one line dripping last night. Our hot water is not flowing - so we know now to leave that line dripping as well. Fingers crossed nothing is broken - we have flexible hoses, thankfully. I did insulate the door overnight but we lowered the bed over the driving area and put the unused foam up there and we stayed in the mid-60’s overnight using two plug-in electric heaters. Right now we have the propane heat running but when we leave we will switch back to the electric heaters only.

Today’s plan is to take the light rail into down town and pick up our rental car. We will likely also visit the Temple Square, a place I visited back in the 1990’s when I was here working for the Department of Defense inspecting the Morton-Thiokol plant outside of Salt Lake City. I remember finding the Square to be very beautiful and quite peaceful. I’m curious to see if I feel the same way this time around. Once we have a car we will be able to drive out to the ski resorts and do what we came here to do.

I know that when we travel food has been one of my favorite topics to write about. So far, I can’t say we’ve eaten that well. Dinner at the bar and grill was fine - I had an “Oriental” chicken salad that was good but overdressed; Van had “wedding soup” that was quite good plus a salad. Breakfast in Winnemucca was from the McDonald’s across the parking lot; lunch was pretty good - tacos from a taco stand in Wendover, just across the Utah/Nevada border. Dinner was salmon fillets, rice with green onions, beets and a large salad, all prepped and cooked in the RV, including on the grill that came with her. Dinner was good and we enjoyed some of our Witching Stick Chardonnay with it.

I’ll write more from the road - we are going to be gone for several weeks, here in SLC and then at Park City; we will take our time coming home, taking a more southern route. I’m hoping some hot springs will be in our future. Happy New Year to all of you!

Happy New Year 2022!