Day 59 Wednesday June 26/13 Lake Tahoe, Nevada 18460 kms

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Sorry friends that we are so late posting this blog. It's been a busy few days!

We are staying at Harvey's Hotel, which is on stateline drive, and as the name suggests, once you cross the street from the hotel, you are in California. My first impressions of Tahoe were surpassed today as we had glorious sunshine and fresh allergen-free air. The last two days of torrential rain here have crisped up the atmosphere and put pollen in its place. We decided to stay 3 nights so that we could really kick back and take a break after putting in so much mileage the last few days. I mean, other than the break we also took in Ely for two days.

So to recap our activities here in no particular order:

- did a wine tour by bus so we could actually sample some wine, and buy some wine, and bring wine "home" for the evening. Excellent host, extremely knowledgeable and kept us interested the whole tour. Crossed the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) a couple of times about which "Hank" educated us further. Sally got me a book for Christmas titled WILD by Cheryl Strayed. It's her account of hiking the trail which starts on the Mexican border and finishes in BC. Typically hikers start late April and finish early September. At the time I read the book, which is a great read, I thought it would be cool some day to hike it. Yesterday, we both had another "we should do that" moment. Oh dear. We may have to live to 125.

- went to a sleazy time share presentation so they could give us a free breakfast (lame egg sandwich) and also pay for our gambling via a $100 gift voucher

- went to a great buffet restaurant on the top floor of Harrah's that was outstanding. It's all you can eat, and since we came up a little short, we had to return the second night

- rode public transportation shuttle bus to the top of Tahoe Ridge, to see what the Ridge timeshare resort looked like (not the same timeshare we suffered through earlier) and check out Heavenly Valley ski resort base

- rode public transportation bus to outlet store mall, where unfortunately only 4 out of an original 20 stores were still in business. Got to see the dark side of Tahoe i.e. residential areas consisting of impoverished families living in small dingy motel rooms, run down mobile trailer parks full of garbage and old stuff piled up everywhere. Counted 40 motels on the main strip (in California) on the bus ride home

- walked to the beach from the hotel, passing many more cheap, cheesy motels mostly full of families rather than visitors, from what we could see

- dipped hands in Lake Tahoe, quite mild, extremely clear and clean

- spent an hour browsing shops in the area. Bought nothing - again, tacky touristy OR expensive high end over priced shops much like Whistler

- overall impression: In South Lake Tahoe, the 4 main hotels like Harrah's, Harveys, Montblue, The Horizon, plus a couple of others on the California side such as the Marriott, were impressive, but there were certainly alot of run down one level motels all with lit vacancy signs. From what we can gather, the casinos continue to make all the money but don't pay their employees too well, and as such the employees are living in these beaten up motels. That's just our impression. It's a theme we've seen before in places like Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada and recently in Metropolis, Illinois now that we think about it.

- scenic value: fantastic. The lake is extremely clear, and a vibrant blue. Tahoe is mostly a forested setting, but becoming very developed. I would like to see it in the winter when it's snowing and perhaps do a ski vacation with the girls here, staying up on the Ridge. I don't know how the small town copes when it snows, the roads in and out, as well as up the hill of course, are pretty steep.

- wanted to renew our wedding vows in Nevada but couldn't find a school bus

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