Thursday, December 15, 2016

Talk about serendipity, we were scheduled to leave the same day a "planned release" at the dam was due to put our site at Woodson Bridge underwater.  The heavy rains had filled upstream reservoirs and with more rain in the forecast, they had to reduce the lake level.  The river level was just a few feet from reaching the top of the bank as we awoke.  It was not due to cover our site for another couple of hours, so we were not worried about being washed away.

Katie found a video of Woodson Bridge RV Park flooding, captured by cellphone on December 16, 2016, as the Sacramento River reached flood stage midday by Mike's Guide Service.

We probably should have started earlier than we did, but hitting the road in the rain is always a struggle and we had to wait to settle the electricity bill.  It was a long drive - too long for these short days! We traveled 311.4 miles (80,674.6 total) to Park of the Sierras, an Escapee park about 30 miles north of Fresno, CA.  Along the way, we found ourselves only a few seconds behind a two-car collision that probably totaled both vehicles (everyone appeared to be OK).  There was a lot of rain and more traffic than I have seen in quite a while. Finally, with less than 10 miles to go, the freeway was shut down due to another wreck.

That delay meant we lost our daylight and I found myself driving in the dark for the first (and hopefully, last) time. It certainly did not help that it was still pouring rain and we were sharing the winding mountain roads with a lot of traffic.  When we reached the park I was happy to have the spotlight on the roof to pick out signs to find our way in the very dark park.  Since we arrived more than an hour after the office closed we had to dry camp for the night.

It was only 6 o'clock or so, but I did not see a single soul as I gave Sam a quick walk.  I found the huge empty clubhouse and their dog park close-by.  We were all alone in a large paved area, but we were off of the main road.  I had to assume we were parked OK for the night.

Brrrr! - it was cold.  Maybe we should have been further south in mid-December, but as far as I could tell, the cold snap was settled in everywhere except Florida.  Our coach had plenty of furnace capacity and I don't like to complain since I know it could always be worse.  In the morning we will check-in and give the park a proper looking over.