Driving home

 We left John David and Becky's on December 30...there was a chance of snow on the 31st, so we knew we needed to leave while the forecast looked good...  We weren't in a big hurry...I think we left abut 10 a.m.  We headed north on I-25 until we got to Cheyenne, Wyoming...where we hit our old friend, I-80.  We headed west...

 By the time we got to Laramie, we knew we should stop and eat...we had eaten west of here on the initial trip...and we weren't too happy with the food...so Laramie, being a college town, we figured would be better...

We were absolutely correct!

 First of all, Laramie is just a sweet, sweet town!  We loved driving through it... we kept driving and ended up downtown... and found the Crowbar!  Too bad we were still going to be driving, because they had some great beers on tap.  We had water!

 Out of Laramie and heading west.  Snow was on the ground just about the entire trip...but for the most part, the roads were fine...

 Isn't this beautiful?

 This is still in Wyoming, I think... but most of the rest of the photos were taken in Nevada.

This was a tree outside our hotel room in Elko, Nevada....I think it was about 5 degrees outside!

 Nevada...I don't equate Nevada with beauty at all... but with the snow, we thought Nevada was striking!

 I love this...the icy tree against the snowy mountain!

 I can't remember what town this was...Winnemucca maybe?  They didn't have a Starbucks...and I was really wanting a good cup of coffee. 

 Once we reached Reno...and a Starbucks, we heard Hwy 395 and Hwy 44 through Lassen Park were open.  On our trip TO Colorado, there had been some road closures and multiple places to chain up.  Just the day before, there had been chain restrictions on 44 (through Lassen Park).  Hearing 'no chains required' we went that route...it took about 100 miles off our trip.

 We're in California...on Hwy 44...

 

Here, we had stopped at a rest stop...for 2 main reasons:  to take pictures and change drivers.  

 Back on the road...

 Oops, this photo should be before the one above it.  This one, with the icicles, was also taken at the rest stop...

 Mount Lassen in the distance...

 Mount Lassen...

 This is part of the area that had had chains required the day before.  I wasn't totally comfortable with the 'dryness' of the road... "SLOW DOWN, RON"  I do believe I said a time or two or three...

"Judy, calm down.  The roads are dry."  (Do they look dry to you?  NO, they weren't!)

 But they were definitely going through some beautiful scenery!

 You can see how deep it is from this sign...we were leaving Lassen Park...

We made it, obviously, safe and sound.  We stopped in Redding and devoured an In n Out burger...and then our next stop was a New Year's Eve party with my girlfriends and spouses!

Our house when we walked in....was 50 degrees...a bit chilly...so we stayed up until 2 a.m. stoking the fire to try and heat the house up.  My guy had turned the furnace on...but when we returned it was making a tic, tic, ticking sound...with no heat.  Thank goodness we have a wood burning stove.

We were home...it was now 2013...

Here's praying for a blessed year!