Leaving Frenley NV Headed to Kingman AZ

 We were planning on leaving today but everything was against us.  I felt sick when I got up, not real sure what the problem was, maybe my sleep pattern is messed up, you think!  Anyway, we went to breakfast and when we came back I went right to bed and slept for 3 hours while Mark worked packing things up.  When I woke up I felt better so I started to help with the final details.  I always bring in the slides and Mark watches.  Well I push the button for the bedroom slide for about 4 seconds, Mark bends down to close a storage compartment and hears a horrible sound, he looks up and shouts "Stop".  This is what we saw:

Oh S***.  Now we have everything done and were just getting ready to hookup the truck.  We slid the bedroom back out (You aren't suppose to do that) pulled out some things in the storage area so we could look up into where the arm slides in and out, can't really see anything but nothing looks damaged either.  I get on the phone with the factory and they really can't tell us much but get an appointment set up for us in Mesa on Wednesday.  In their defense it's tough being that they can't see it along with the fact that they are in Indiana.  We can't see anything blocking it inside or out so the factory guy tells us to push on it while it is closing and see what happens.  We do as we are told and it closes, Thank you God.   
So now we are all hooked up and by this time the wind is starting to pick up, we get to the office and check out and now you can hardly see outside.  Dust is flying everywhere and the wind is gusting pretty hard.  Oh by the way the office lady told us that we were the 6th couple to leave.  The staffs tells us that it might not be a good idea to leave as the cross winds can be tough.  Well S*** now what do we do.  Mark looked at me and I looked at him, duh?  The decision was made to try it with the understanding that if either of us didn't feel comfortable we would stop.  We pulled out at 1pm and took it slow.  You never know what the conditions will be when you get on the other side of the mountain.  We made it fine to Fallon which is 25 miles away, got on 95 South then seen a sign over the interstate saying that it wasn't advisable for high profile campers, well S***.  We pulled over and waited a few minutes watching the traffic headed North and we kept seeing RVs and tractor trailers so we continued on.  95 carries you through Walker River Indian Reservation and then on to Walker Lake which is a huge desert lake that has dry camping, boating, a 20 mile beach, etc. 

The drive along the lake is very pretty and we would have stopped if we had more time and better weather, we are at an elevation of 4,000 ft.  There really wasn't much to see on the way to Walker Lake but some very small dried up towns or should I say villages.  Well it didn't get much better on the way to Tonopah.  You do pass through Hawthorne which has a population of 3,000 and the average home price is $59,000.  Like I said there isn't much until you get to Tonopah so we kept going.  The winds weren't bad until we got 30 miles out from Tonopah.  We had to slow down to 50 as I feel them more than Mark does.  We have been climbing in elevation since we left Hawthorne and the winter storm is headed our way.  Around 7pm we finally arrive at Tonopah Casino, locate a site and get setup.  Yeah the bedroom slide went out (with help from Mark), can't get to the bathroom if it doesn't go out.  The wind was whipping and it was cold out.  Went into the casino and had dinner while the caravan was warming up then crawled into to bed, what a day!  Elevation 6,050.

This is what we woke up to the next morning!!!

Damn the storm was on us.

We had breakfast and talked with other stranded folks while trying to decide what to do.  Finally we saw snow plows and as the temps got above 32 it started to melt. I spoke with Terry around 10am and she said the storm was headed their way, well S***!  By 11 we started to get things ready to go.  I got on top of the caravan to brush snow off the slides, never dreamed I would be doing that.  Got the trucks cleaned off, fueled up and headed down the road very slowly.

The roads weren't too bad where they had been plowed and sanded.

        It was actually very serene looking but on the other hand it didn't seem right, snow in the desert?

      After about 20 miles the plows stopped and the roads weren't so nice and it started to snow again.

Eventually the roads cleared as we got to lower elevations but the sky was still scary looking.

Stopped in Beatty for lunch and continued on.  We passed by Area 51 but didn't see any

                                                                           aliens or

                                               space ships so we continued on to Las Vegas.
Just a bit outside of Las Vegas we ran into rain and drove through the city with white knuckles as the traffic was heavy and people will just cut you off in a second.  Made it through Vegas and stopped in Henderson for fuel.  I was excited about traveling on the new bypass over the Hoover Dam.  When I came to see Terry & Danny last January they weren't quite done with it yet.  Anyway, couldn't see too much as it was raining and a bit windy, better to keep me eyes on the road. 

We arrived in Kingman around 5:30 and met Terry & Danny at the truck stop, left the caravan and went to their house for dinner.  Later Danny took Mark back to the caravan and he stayed at Walmart as we couldn't get into the campground until tomorrow, I stayed at their house.  Another crazy travel day!