Well after 9 days of all three highways in and out of Big Bear being shut down, the only road open is the back grade down into the high desert and only residents with valid proof of residency are being allowed up. The ski resort has been insanely slow of course since no tourists are being allowed up. My ski and ride school director keeps thinking any day it’s going to open up. She keeps emailing everyone “well we were hoping the roads would open today but not so… hopefully tomorrow….” She’s either very naive or maybe not but everything I’m hearing is saying at least another week before they even think about letting non resident traffic up the back grade. I put in a request for a couple days off for this week, nearly two months ago, it was approved, and then rescinded out of spite by my primary manager because she’s angry at me for going to HR about all the problems that sheas causing, and I have actual proof of that sadly.
ANYWAYS!!! The road closures worked in my favor with business being so low and my director approved my two days late in the day on Thursday, off so I could take this week and head to Utah. Got cut from the Saturday schedule yesterday which is kinda BS because I have a lot of seniority and I’m one of only a handful of instructors with intermediate and advanced level teaching certs. But I decided to look on the bright side of things and took Friday and Saturday to clean my whole house and be totally prepped for the trip. Spent all day yesterday packing, making sure I had everything ready, and after my tire rotation service on got canceled on Thursday, I was able to get it done last minute over at the Jeep shop that my clients own. Unfortunately he found a screw in one tire, but didn’t have full patch kit handy and didn’t want to risk a plug coming out on the trip today. It hasn’t leaked at all and when he sprayed soapy water on it yesterday morning it wasn’t leaking either. It held all the way from big bear to Utah with no leaks so tomorrow morning I’ll hit up a tire shop here and have it patched.
Of course right now the sheriffs department, caltrans, and highway patrol are all saying different things as to what they’ll accept as proof of residency. But I made sure to have all my documentation with me. Highway patrol office said late last night all the roads including the roads in big bear valley were still under R3 chain restrictions. I’m like ummmmmm….. “they plowed all the way to pavement and I saw photos of dry pavement on the 18…. Why would I need chains on that?!” Lol. She’s like “oh well I guess I don’t have up to date information…..” wow…. Just wow… lol. I kept things polite as im sure they’re been dealing with all sorts of angry people….
Replaced the idler pulley and the tensioner on the belt a couple days ago as I was still getting really nasty belt whine intermittently after replacing the serpentine belt a couple weeks ago. Super intermittent and usually not when the truck is at running temp. Well this morning about halfway down the 18 it started whining again at full running temp… not sure why.
Aside from that the truck ran good all the way up to Utah.
My dream living would probably be a white sandy beach that’s warm all year round and never ever sees snow lol.
