Holy Snow Storm Batman!!

Yes, Virginia. It snows in California. For those of you who are not familiar with where the Campbell parents live, picture Southern California and then picture the exact opposite. Northern California looks pretty much like the Upper Peninsula. And the storm that hit late Thursday night into Friday was pretty much a UP storm, too. So what that translated to was Rob and MK landing in Reno (which is where we always fly into Reno because McArthur, California population 1000 does NOT have an airport) and finding out the 'rents were snowed in and we needed to either stay in Reno until the storm cleared (which was to predicted to clear until Sunday) or rent a car and drive SLOOOOOOOOOOWLY up the mountains. Well, we did both. We hung out in Reno at a casino for about an hour or so and then decided we should just try to go. Now mind you, the car that Pops had reserved for us was a Chevy Malibu. This doesn't exactly scream "Snow Car". Bro went rounds with the be-atch at the rental car company about whether we were allowed to put chains on the car. Yeah...guess who won that fight.

Anywhoo...so we start the drive. Normally it's only three hours. The 1.5 hour drive from Reno to Susanville, CA went off without a hitch. It was a wee bit windy (read three semi trucks blown over on their sides.) Unfortunately, in that part of the world there is no radio station to entertain us. Lucky for us, I have a Mad Libs app on my ipad so we had a grand time. There may have been some stories that I can't share on this forum as they may not be appropriate for certain readers. Just know that we were fully entertaining ourselves. Once we rolled into Susanville, we hit the local tire store and got chains. Heading up the mountain, we quickly realized the chains were needed. Now, dear reader(s), what is important for you to know is that we are two city kids who have never put chains on tires before. I would just like to state for the record that I wanted to put the chains on the front tires because I was pretty sure the car was front wheel drive. After a minor disagreement, we ended up putting them on the back tires. As an aside, when Pops and I took the car to the local shop today to have it checked out, the mechanic told me that the chains should have been on the front and they didn't do any good on the back.

45 minutes later, we got the chains on and were on our way at a speedy 25 mph. I won't bore you with the details of the next 5 hours (that's how long it took us to go about 100 miles). Needless to say, we arrived at my folks place about 9pm and a discussion with Pops ensued about not being cheap next time and springing for the 4x4 rental car.

Now that we are here, I will say that the snow (which continues off and on) is beautiful and it's the first time I've seen this much snow here.

During a break in the snow today, I managed to get in a run. During my run, I found a bird that had gotten his little wing stuck on a barbed wire fence and he was flapping his good wing like crazy. I was afraid he was going to do more damage so I went to help. He let me hold him in one hand while I gently pulled his other wing off the barb. I was worried he wasn't going to be ale to fly but I set him down on the snow and he flew to the nearest tree. So I am hoping his is okay and found his family/friends and told them about the nice redhead that saved him. Yes, I have a soft spot for animals.

I've included some pics of the past 24 hours. Enjoy!!