Snow to Sunshine; Just When You Think You Know What to Expect

Last weekend the pups and I went to Reno to visit Dan and take in some city life. We ended up not going out on the town much since Dan was suffering from a nasty cold. However, I did get to play some ultimate on Saturday which was a lot of fun. I definitely miss playing frisbee 2 to 4 times a week, but at least I'm able to stay in decent shape working out at the ranch.

The weather Saturday afternoon while we were playing disc was really nice, cool, but not so cool that you had to wear layers. I was wearing shorts a light thermal top and a tee shirt and was very comfortable. That night, however, it started to snow and it snowed all night long. We woke up Sunday morning to about a foot of snow on the ground and it was still snowing hard. The news reports said it was going to rain, not snow, so we were definitely not expecting it.

For some reason, mother nature has decided to dump a bunch of snow on us whenever I'm supposed to do a lot of driving. The last time it snowed this much was the day before I left for Euskadi and I had to take Bodie to the goat sitter, it was a pain, but we managed. Well, this past Sunday I was supposed to drive down to Carson and pick up my dad's four chickens and drive them up to the ranch. I expected the road down to Carson to be a mess, it usually is after a snow storm. I called dad Sunday morning assuming that there was going to be about a foot and a half of snow or more in Carson (Carson usually gets a lot more snow than Reno). He said they only got an inch or two, if that, Crazy!

Dan and I talked for awhile trying to figure out if I wanted to drive down to Carson and to the ranch in the snow. Even though Carson didn't get much snow the roads in and around Reno were not great and it was still snowing. Another factor in the decision was with Dan being sick, I might want to leave him the car regardless so he wouldn't have to bike to work in the nasty weather. Plus, I could hitch a ride to the ranch with Glynn and Trenton who were in Reno for bull riding. I would just have to leave the chickens in Carson and Dan could pick them up next weekend and bring them to the ranch when he visited.

We decided to leave the car with Dan and I would then hitch a ride with Glynn. Leaving Reno it was super foggy, snowing hard and there was a ton of snow on the ground. The snow was fairly wet so the roads actually weren't as bad as we had originally thought. As we drove, the weather appeared to get better and better. The weather at the ranch tends to be quite similar to the weather in Reno, even though it's about 5 hours away. One place may get a little more or a little less snow, but it tends to be comparable. If it's cold and cloudy in Reno it tends to be cold and cloudy at the ranch.

Well, when we arrived at the ranch on Sunday afternoon the weather couldn't have been more different than in Reno, it was a beautiful sunny day. I took the kids for a walk and I had to take off layers. It was absolutely amazing. It seemed so crazy that I woke up in a foot of snow in Reno and then I was basking in sunshine at the ranch. I called Dan to see if the weather had changed there, but he said it was still snowing in Reno and was amazed to hear how warm the weather at the ranch was. The storm must have been super isolated, hanging out over Reno. Mother nature mixing it up a bit, keeping us on our toes.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the snow in Reno, silly me.