Reno Trip Day 2 - Going Home

There is white powdery stuff falling down outside while traveling east.  There are also many of those moving objects with wheels on the road. Basically, a good deal of people going home from the ski resorts for the weekend, since many people have to go to school and work the next day.

The car is averaging about 30 miles per hour in this chain control area.  Basically no one wants to be stuck in traffic since everyone will arrive home late.  Likewise, if the snow in this area becomes severe, highway patrol will shut down the road to clear the snow before allowing people to pass.

It is currently 19:24 and we are at about 4,000 feet above sea level.  There is plenty of snow outside even at this elevation.  Of course, the reason why I'm not so used to this is because whenever I go to South Lake Tahoe in February, there has been little snow these past few years.  Also, Northern California has had a few storms pass through the past week.  This has to be the reason why everyone is rushing up here this weekend, since there must be much powder in the area.

Reflecting on my skiing experience today, the (intermediate) trails offered at Northstar are wide, lightly groomed, and not too ripped up by large amounts of traffic.  But, today the area had some new snow, so that replaces the ripped up runs.  However, at Heavenly, Big Dipper is one of my favorite trails, and it is also extremely busy with traffic.  Way early in the morning, the grooming tracks can usually be seen. By about noon, that trail would develop some moguls from the traffic through it.  Even if it snows in the afternoon, there is ice on the trail.  I can't compare Big Dipper with any other runs at Northstar, because this still is my first time there.

So it is now 19:42 as I'm writing this post on the document saved on the computer.  I just stuck my hand outside to record some video of the snow conditions and traffic at this time in Interstate 80.  Take a look here:

Likewise, I just passed a van that looked like CBS5 News, since it had a blue logo.  That's exciting seeing news being broadcasted directly from it's source.  Of course, I'm not sure what that van was doing there, since it looked like it could possibly be a webcam set up for this part of the highway.

Okay, it is now 7:47 PM, and that just reminds me of the Boeing 747 of course.  I'd be home by now if I took a plane home.  What would be interesting is that I take a private jet - say a Bombardier Learjet 45 - and looking outside seeing all of the mountains under the plane.  But flying in a plane is different experience compared to being stuck in traffic.

People are now outside removing their chains.  Trucks are all outside removing their chains, along with other people.  And we just passed the chain  area, and our speed is now up to 50 miles per hour.  We just passed Crystal Springs Exit 148A.

The laptop battery happens to say 22% and 48 minutes remaining.  I'm just doing word processing, so that should be no big deal for a computer.  But either way I'm starting to get tired of writing.  And there's no more snow.  It's all rain, with sleet on the sides of the road.

Published 2010-01-25