Daves guest room has a loft bed. It was comfortable to sleep on, but a bit tricky to get in and out of when you are bleary-eyed and a bit disoriented at 3:38 in the a.m. Still, no necks or ankles were broken, and I slept OK.
We had a nice afternoon yesterday once I unpacked and blogged and stuff. We took Daves bikes (pedal, not motor) and cycled to Phoenix Lake, about half an hour from where Dave lives. The bike Dave gave me to ride had assisted pedaling, so while I still had to work, it was a help riding up the hills. Excitingly (I think it was exciting), on our descent, a young lady stopped us, and pointed to a snake that was emerging from the grass at the side of the path. It was a rattlesnake. It is not usual to see these there – in fact Dave said he had not seen one on the 20+ years he has lived in California. We watched it slowly slide across the path, and disappear into the grass on the other side.
Morning, and once again I was up before the alarm – about 05:48. I did the thing, loaded the thing, and rolled out of there about 07:20. California, once again, was underwhelmingly cool and gray, and I needed my layers and thickest pair of gloves. Coming out of the Bay area was uneventful, but I enjoyed the traverse of wine country.
Breakfast was a mistake. My mistake. I had targeted a diner before I set off, and when I rode into the car park, it was actually a Mexican fast-food place. No worries, I don’t mind that. I had a spice breakfast burrito. The combination of spicy burrito with last nights Indian curry did hold my stomach hostage later in the morning, I escaped unscathed overall. The mistake was that when I left the breakfast place, I saw that exactly behind where I had parked was the diner I was aiming for. Doh!
Breakfast was just outside Sacramento. From there, I started to slowly climb, until I was actually in some mountains, with a lovely river tumbling alongside the road. There were lots of twists and turns in the road, as it rose up through the forest. Somewhere around here, I clocked my 2,000th mile of this current journey. It is a long one, for sure. Eventually, the road topped at around 7,100 feet, and brought with it great views of the southern portion of lake Tahoe.
I rode down the other side – another lovely winding descent, and stopped at the lake to enjoy the views.
The state border with Nevada runs through the lake – and through the town of South Lake Tahoe. I didn’t notice any border signs, but the California side was classy and rustic, then suddenly there were a few chain restaurants, and then a bunch of gaudy casinos. The casinos proliferate in Nevada, for some reason. Still, with my experiences of the last few days (time with Dave and cousin Jonny aside), I was happy to have California behind me.
The road wound along next to the lake for some miles, and climbed up an equivalent height – to over 7,000 ft to get away and aim towards my next destination.
Nevada seems to be largely flat, hot and boring. I spent an hour in the company of these three ladies, and arrived at my motel mid-afternoon. I am somewhat tired – Dave and I had a lovely evening but went to bed late – so I will probably have the quietest Friday night of anyone in all of Nevada. See ya on Saturday.