We (daughter, dogs, and stinky hockey bag) drove to Tahoe. This lovely 975 mile trip allowed me to cross driving across the country off the bucket list. Ok yes I didn't do it in one trip but San Fran to Tahoe has been done many times, Aspen to Chicago a couple, and Chicago to Cape Cod so many times I can tell you where the best fruit stands are along interstate 90 in upstate NY. The final piece was UT and NV. If I never do the drive from Salt Lake to Reno again my life will be richer for it.
Things I saw along the way:
1. Sign in UT off highway 6 for Starvation road.
2. Modified sign in UT warning of Beer (used to be Deer) crossing for next 10 miles. Sadly no beers sited.
3. A sign announcing no services this exit, or this one, or the next one, or............um my daughter has a bladder the size of a cherry tomato and I consumed about 10 mountain dews----next exit we pulled off, dropped our pants and peed. One mile later a sign announced a rest stop 1 mile further. Below daughter pulling a runner during pee break (she almost made it but for the lack of water)
4. Long stretches of 80MPH speed zones. If we weren't stopping to pee every 45 minutes we could have made the trip in record time.
5. 125 miles of visibility. Coming east at West Wendover I could see all the way to the Wasatch mountains. Wow.
6. Casinos everywhere. The first one is at West Wendover which is built right on the border of UT and NV. In UT you can't get a beer and a shot, no gambling and no prostitutes (but multiple wives? is there a relationship between those two?) Anyhow, cross the border and you got beers, shots, sex for money and gambling everywhere (in truck stops, gas stations---if you found 10 people you found a casino along this section of I80). And the Casino in West Wendover set back from the state line would make Lincoln park property line setbacks look generous.
7. A sign announcing a slot tournament. Uh doesn't a tournament imply skill, is there any skill involved in slots?
8. While waiting in line to order some most excellent tacos in South Tahoe I got nailed on the head by a huge pine cone. Seems there is a chipmunk who lives in the very large pine tree who doesn't like people buying tacos. After that didn't work he pelted my car with branches and pine cones. That is one bad ass chipmunk.
9. Best gas station ever in UT---an employee cleaned pretty much my entire car--I am looking desperately at the sign that says self serve and saying WTF---he said it was no problem, glad to help and would I like any info about the Book of Mormon?
10. We spent the night on the way to Tahoe in Winnemucca --I was later told by a friend this is known as the prostitution capital of the world---I am not sure about the world but it would give Amsterdam a run for its money.
11. While driving around Tahoe (from Squaw to South lake) I spotted Jerry Garcia no fewer than 13 times. Also more pot smoking in CA than CO. A lot more.
12. Our most excellent VRBO rental house was located in an area that made us feel right at home if home was the not so nice parts of south Chicago. My daughter asked a number of times about why we didn't have bars on our doors and windows when all the neighbors did. And yet it was really just a solid working class neighborhood located 1/3 of a mile from the lake and 1 mile from the rink and 1/2 mile from base of heavenly ski area. And yes it's true you can buy a small house in a ski town for 300k.
13. Walking the dogs at 6 am I ran into a guy dressed like a sith lord twirling his sword. I ran into him 2 more times over the next 5 days. Did I mention the weed consumption in CA? Sorry the photo is not great but it needed to be taken on the QT.
14. Under the heading of bad dog---my younger pulled a runner in the desolation wilderness. She was gone for close to an hour. I figured she had gotten mashed to a pulp in a waterfall but I found her about two miles down the trail heading up the hill with a couple of Coeds (one of whom was wearing a tee shirt that said 'maybe later'). Bad dog? Good dog???????
15 Bad dog II---3 days later even higher up in the desolation wilderness we get to Gilmore lake. Its frozen.......ish. I grab the good dog and leash her up, the bad dog heads towards the lake. I pull out my handy bag of dog treats......she looks at me, and I swear gives me the middle finger.....claw, and runs onto the lake. Way out onto the lake. 100s of yards onto the lake. I am thinking once again of dogsickel, but she makes it back (very wet).
Thats enough for now--for the 4th my daughter will be riding with the Aspen Junior leafs float, and I will be slinging beers at the AVSC picnic (all bloody day).
Oh yea and my daughter watched 22 hours of Glee, both Vacation movies, and Sherlock Holmes season 1----whatever happened to mad libs?
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