The story of the trip to Lake Tahoe is a tale of adventure.
It is a tale of epically magnificent scenery.
It is a tale of rainstorms.
It is a tale of snowstorms.
It is a tale of mountains.
It is a tale of nearly 300 photos taken.
We set out a little after 6am on Monday. We drove for a very long time, through threatening weather and much rain.
And we drove, and drove, and drove, stopping for both breakfast and lunch at fast food restaurants, and snackies and breaks at petrol stations. I don't have pictures of this, but along the Interstate there are these places where there's a freeway exit to motels, and fast food joints, and nothing else that I can see; and nowhere near anything else. Some of these places have actual town names. I can't help but wonder if people live there, or commute, and if they commute, where from, and if they live there, what it's like to live in a place like that or even grow up in one.
There are also places where there are random houses, far from anywhere, without even access roads that I can see, and I have no idea if people live there, and if they do, what they do there.
I do have more scenery photos:
Finally, we got into the mountains.
We were concerned, at first; there was a lot of runoff from melting snow in evidence, and we were steeling ourselves for minimal snow, and making the best of it. More on that later. We continued taking occasional photos as we climbed the mountain, including snaps of Bridal Veil Falls. On the way back down there was a lot less runoff, and the waterfall was less full, which made it both more veil-like and less pretty.
We started seeing traces of snow along the sides of the road, and on cars coming down off the mountain; this we took as promising. Finally we got up to the snowline.
Here endeth part one of the Tahoe diary - later I'll go on. (Just think how many pretty photos I'm
not putting up here.) And yes, eventually I'll continue the Journey Diary of the flight and so on, and get to the actual good bits.
When I finally get around to putting together my redesigned webpage with photo gallery and all, there shall be much prettiness in evidence.
Tahoe Diary: Part Two.
At the snowline we had to put snow chains on the tyres. We weren't sure how to do this, and so were going to get the Chain Control guys to do it - but they were completely hidden, when we searched about five miles back down the mountain for them, so we ended up doing it ourselves. The chains we had were really well-designed, fortunately, and my only trauma was having to do things in the freezing cold when I had
not yet adjusted to snow temperatures.
On and on we drove up the mountain, thence to encounter a snowstorm, and blowing snow, and general hazards that made getting over it very slow going. A guy in a small orange truck in front of us was having serious problems.
His brakes failed on the icy downslope - fortunately he was a sensible lad, and, being already moving very slowly, carefully ran his vehicle into a snowbank to stop it. A couple of times, that I saw, poor man - it must have taken him forever to get down the mountain. (We eventually overtook him.)
Eventually we got over the mountain, and to the check-in place for accommodations - there to discover that the place we were supposed to be staying was completely buried in snow, and we were being put somewhere else - somewhere about two blocks away, praise all controlling forces of the universe. We left at 6:15am. At this point, it was about half past four.
So we went to our new temporary abode. Which was kinda blockedish too, so while the guys were on their way to clear some driveway for us we went and got dinner at the casino, and stopped off for very basic groceries.
Photo taken the morning we left.
The next morning, there'd been much snow. Between that, and the vehicles that keep the roads clear coming by and leaving a little wall of snow and ice at the edge of the road, the car was blocked again.
Before...
and after I dug it out.
That snow piled on the roof that I didn't think to clear - up high, and all - caused us a minor problem later, when Martha braked and it slid down over the windscreen.
We went out and touristed around the town a little, but not much, because it was still snowing. We did get proper groceries, and I got some presents for people. The town was pretty, but the conditions less than inviting.
We ended up going back to the house. We had Kraft dinner and pre-wrapped sausages for dinner that night, or as I like to think of it, If I Had $1000,000 Cuisine.
The next morning, we had reasonably clear skies and an un-buried car: observe the view from the window of the house.
Here endeth part two, edited onto part one for continuity.
