Advertisement
Published: November 29th 2009
P1060417
Wow giant tea bag either that or i'm wasting awayErm not much to say really. The drive to lake Tahoe was a really nice one as we used the Tioga pass which runs the width of Yosemite and brings you out at the north east edge. I was very excited because we were passing clumps of snow in the shade even though the rest of the place was lit by bright sunshine and blue sky. As I wasn’t the driver of our lovely blue car it was easy for me to keep shouting “pull in here” to Nath every time I saw some snow I wanted to walk in. But that wasn’t easily done (so I’m told) and thus we passed some large areas of snow cover before stopping opposite some by the side of lay by. We weren’t the only ones to be enjoying the snow (well just me anyway) there was another “super couple” there wanting to take a shot for their Xmas card. They were native San Franciscans and were really sweet (Two guys travelling together from San Francisco! - enough said).
After making our way out of the park the drive to Lake Tahoe was flatter and lot more dull but we soon approached a
huge mountain range which I was sure we were going to have to drive around……. But no, in the spirit of America, nothing stands in their way so we proceeded to go up and over the top. A total of 10, 000 feet in a matter of 20 mins!! We were now arriving in the ski region but as I had suspect there was no snow. I was really hoping the reports I’d read were wrong and that we would be surrounded by loads of snow based activates that we could join in on - that wasn’t so but what was really a kick in the teeth was learning later that evening that snow was due to arrive the day after we left - dam it!!!
So we booked into our little motel lodge room, which was like a 70’s nightmare, wall to wall wood tongue and groove - nice!! And it was freezing, so heating went straight on and we lip read the people on the TV as the heating system was so loud. It wasn’t all bad though, we ordered a pizza on line (Which I thought was great, yes I know, I need to get out
more) and ended up watching Dodgeball “if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball” - classic!
Next day we eventually got up and out (after I had had a hissy fit on the phone to the bank for not allowing me access to my money - still not resolved, apparently my account cant do online transfers so I have to call each time I wanna do it. They could change my account over to one that works online but I need to be in the UK to sort this out - very f-ing helpful Halifax!!!!) and made our way to the Emerald bay that I’d read about. I thought it was quite near by but it turns out lake Tahoe is actually quite huge and in the end it took a good 25 mins to drive there. Unfortunately all the activities I’d read about on trip advisor were for during the summer and as we had arrive in some limbo month between the end of summer and before the snow, it was all pretty quiet with not much to do. We walked down to this old Viking style house some woman had built (couldn’t be bothered
to read the info sorry) called vickingstolm, but again this was “closed for the season” (a sign we would see a lot of in Tahoe) so we just wondered around the lake edge enjoying a few shots of the setting sun etc. We forgot about the elevation we were at and after walking a half a mile to some waterfall we were absolutely knackered (oh I forgot to say the walk down to this beach was a steep one so the walk up would not be fun). But feeling really tired and really thirsty, we dragged ourselves up the long climb back to the car where I opened the only drink we had left, a lovely can of Budweiser, unfortunately being the driver Nath had to do with a mouthful of warm water he found in an old water bottle we had left in the car (probably 90% back wash as well). After a handful of nuts as a snack to keep me going I felt as if I should be sat in a pub! We then continued to drive round the rest of the lake and we’d both agreed NO MORE WALKING!!
That evening we headed back to
P1060425
Even the pine cones are massive, maybe I am wasting away?? the hotel via subway and proceeded to get lost as the sat nav decided to turn female on us and loose all sense of direction. I nearly flew into another hissy fit and threw it out the window but we did eventually get back to our room. We decided to go to the cinema that evening to watch “the invention of lying”. After setting the destination into the now forgiven sat nav, we drove over the first set of lights up form our hotel only to hear “you have arrived!!” - If we’d have known it was that near we’d have walked (although it was cold and hey we are in America!!). On entering the very empty cinema we were approached by a member of staff who told us if we wanted tickets we had to go back outside to the booth window to get them. So stepping back out into the cold we watched the lady take her seat inside the booth before selling us our tickets. After we had walked back inside she then asked if we wanted some popcorn or drinks - eh?? I didn’t even want to guess about going to the loo!!! Anyway there was
P1060426
Millyons of big pine cones only us and one other guy in the cinema and we found the film fairly funny, and more so than the guy in front when it came to some funny scenes about English people and Barry from Eastenders turns up.
Well the next day we did nothing - I think we eventually left the room to look for somewhere to burn some DVD’s (backing up photos) which it seems is impossible to do - no one could help us. Nath go his hair cut for $10 by some Mexican lady who struggled with his accent and then proceeded to give him and egg shape head (hehehe) and then we did our washing and bloging etc.
I know this all sounds really bad with us not enjoying the place and doing as much as possible and I don’t know if its coz we are still feeling the effects of the flu, but we just couldn’t be bothered anymore. I know I’m getting a bit sick of the US now and want to move on, we’ve already spent enough money and some of the touristy things that were left, just weren’t worth doing - so forgive us if your screaming
at the screen “you ungrateful buggars!!” but we just need a rest from arranging things and moving on all the time - good thing we’re now off to Fiji!!!
Now for the Jerry Springer moment where I surmise my time in America:
I was at first very excited by the smallest of things and eventually realised that a lot of my impression of America was from TV and was incorrect. However as we moved on some of what I had imagined was indeed correct and I must say the last few days have been a bit of a drag.
My fav places / experiences have been: New York (which I would love to visit again in the winter - snow yippee), Chicago, The Zephyr train, Rayleen and Robs 😊 and Yosemite. As for everything else I’m not fussed one bit. I’m disappointed we never got to go to the Grand Canyon or Bryce canyon, so maybe that will be worth another trip one day and I still want to go to watch a sports match and a drive in movie, neither of which we managed in the end.
I haven’t enjoyed the tipping (as you know) or the fact
P1060429
Emerald lake that helpfulness seems to cost you. The beggars and con artists and the rubbish food we’ve eaten.
But we have met some wonderful people who I hope to keep in contact with so that makes the trip here worth it alone.
Roll on Fiji ………
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0356s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
