Held Captive in Klamath Falls OR by Ontrac (Pt.2)…

We pulled into the Diamond Mountain Casino in Susanville, California and found a nice boondocking site tucked into the back corner of the parking lot. There was only one other camper and a small sleeper van spending the night. We went into the casino to tell them we would be overnighting and signed up for a players card hoping for some free play.

There was no free play but we went to the bar because this casino also has a brewery inside it and after that harrowing drive from Klamath Falls we certainly needed a cold frosty beverage! Although the beers at Double Mountain Brewery weren’t that great they surely hit the spot that evening. The server informed us that if we were gambling our beers would be $2 each instead of the $4 normal price!

We found five cent video poker at the bar and put in a buck each  while enjoying our $2 beers. The server also told us if we wanted food that with our players card we would receive a 20% senior discount so since we hadn’t eaten dinner, we split a half-pound burger and fries which were much better than anticipated. We had another $2 cold one and eventually each lost our buck in the video poker machines but were very happy this day was over.

The next morning I got up a little after 4:00 am to check the weather to see where the cyclone was and when it would arrive. It was forecasted to hit Susanville at around 11:00 am so I woke Sharon by 6:00 and we were on the road at 6:30. I know Sharon hadn’t seen a sunrise in quite some time but she did that morning and even snapped a few pictures through our bug splattered window,

The drive on route 395 south from Susanville CA to Reno NV is notorious for high winds coming off the downslopes of the CA mountains. Combine this with the incoming typhoon one can understand why we were so eager to leave Klamath Falls!  Our early start from Susanville was part of my plan to ensure we would be ahead of the coming severe winds.

Well, imagine our alarm when we were about 20 minutes into our drive and saw a flashing highway sign warning high profile vehicles to not head south on 395. I had Sharon double-check the hour by hour weather forecast I had checked earlier to see what had changed. She did and nothing had changed so we continued south and although we got bounced around a few times because of gusting winds the drive went pretty well. It didn’t help that we saw two overturned truck trailers along this road on our way but they appeared to have happened a day or so ago.

We safely pulled into the Bonanza Inn and Casino by 9:30 am in Fallon, NV where there were FHU sites for only $15. We got set up and waited for the remnants of the cyclone to hit Fallon. The winds came after lunch and even this far south we had 25-30 mph winds with a few more blustery gusts. The bright side was the temperatures were in the 70’s so we were in shorts again and we are pretty hopeful that after today we can resume our normal RV’ing lifestyle…

NOTE: We are now in Pahrump Nevada and glad to be back in shorts again… Will stay here at least three nights before moving towards San Diego for our November stay…