"Even The Goats Are Running Away!"

The plan was to leave Arturas California heading north to cut across the bottom corner of Oregon before turning east towards Boise Idaho, our destination for the night. After a week of getting further and further from home we were finally starting to work our way home. We went to a highly recommended greasy spoon for a big breakfast before we went, and while we were there an extremely cold looking guy rolled in on a BMW F800GS. He had just come down the highway from the north, and said it was snowing for a few hours while he was coming through Oregon. It was bad enough he'd had to pull over for a few hours. We were heading northeast so we figured we'd be able to stay ahead of it, and away we went.

We got 15 miles. As we got into the hills it looked like heavy rain ahead so we pulled over to put on our rainsuits. I had my head down as I dug around in my saddlebag when Ray said "Uh, Larry, that's not rain." When I looked up, I could barely see across the highway for the blowing snow. There was already a thin coating on the ground when Ray pointed and said "Look! Even the goats are running away!" There was a large herd of goats that had been grazing in the field next to us and they were all running for the cover of their barn. Deciding to be at least as smart as a goat we jumped on the bikes to beat a hasty retreat back to town, the sticky snow falling so fast it quickly coated our visors.

We didn't have a Plan B and as we were standing in a parking lot poring over the Nevada map to try and find a way straight east (there wasn't one) a passing lady told us there was hail falling to the south.

We didn't get our old room back at the Super 8, they were already busy making it up, but they had another one ready that was just as nice and we've spent the day watching various combinations of snow rain hail sleet and sun repeatedly cycle through. The guy on the BMW pulled into the lot a few hours later."I got to the campground where I was supposed to meet my buddy when the snow started. After it had started to accumulate in a drift around the bike I decided I'd had enough". The weather system should pass through tonight leaving sunny skies with temps in the low teens. And no snow. Boise can wait a day.