10000ft high ground, Hillbillies and 9/11
Three and a bit hours after leaving San Francisco, and after watching the signpost announcing we were getting higher (and watched the temperature sensor gradually drop from 81 to 62 the higher we got) we arrived at the quite gorgeous Lake Tahoe.
We stayed in a nice log cabin (no phone, no TV, no radio, no net connection) on the edge of the lake. The bedroom was a bit too Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby bear for me (especially with all the talk of actual black bears near the lake) but it was fine compared to some of the dorms I’ve stayed in!
It was really nice area but it was the quiet season between Summer and Ski, so not much was open. We were pretty much left with the option of 'Drive around the Lake.' We stopped off for a coffee at a casino on one side of the Lake (29% of the lake is in Nevada where gambling is legal, not California.) I assume everyone else staying in the area had the same idea as the roads seemed really busy most of the way around. Well, really busy compared to similar places I went to in New Zealand, Mum and Dad thought it was quiet.
The most exciting activity for the day was taking pictures of the chipmunks.
Which was... Nice.
After a couple of days, we headed East into the Sierra Nevada mountains and towards Yosemite. I've long said that since I've been traveling I’ve been getting more blasé about seeing beautiful places and doing exciting things. As we continued East with the farm and scrubland to the left and the mountains to the right, I started to question if I've been spoilt too much as it didn't really have that 'Wow' factor for me. As we climbed past the 8000ft mark, I realised I shouldn’t be so hasty to dismiss a place.
Most of Yosemite National Park is between 5000-10000ft above sea level, the peaks are higher still. There are some absolutely breathtaking vistas. That '50 Places to see before you die' travel program came to my head because I really do think everyone should see this place before they die, its that impressive!
We planned to drive through the park and check in to the hotel on the other side, then come back the next day. We had such beautiful weather though, we ended up driving from lookout to lookout, stopping and taking pictures. After a few hours we stopped off in Yosemite Valley to see El Capitan, the Yosemite falls and the valley's famous 'half dome' at sunset.
We left the valley as it was getting dark. The hotel brochure in the UK said 'Stay at the Best Western Gateway to Yosemite in Oakhurst- Only twelve miles from the park!' What they didn't say was that its 12 miles from the border of the park, 16 miles from the entrance gates and about 50 miles from the valley through 30mph twisty mountain roads which rise up then fall through thousands of feet of dense forest!
Dad had been driving all day, and being scared of heights, wouldn't let Mum drive as it meant he was concentrating on the drops rather than the road. As we drove along the dark never ending (certainly not 12 miles) pass, Dad couldn't see anything either side and was confident driving at the 35 mph speed limit. Vicki on the other hand who seems to have picked up the vertigo gene, didn't take her eyes off the space between the side of the car and the outlines of the trees disappearing into darkness. She spent the hour and a half journey spitting 'DD' and 'SLW DWN' through clenched teeth.
(As a side note, I also have the vertigo gene, but I think it makes jumping off big stuff more fun:)
We finally got to Oakhurst and checked in. We sat in the bar and talked about whether or not we should go back into Yosemite. It certainly seemed a great place, even though we lost a third of it to the night. Was it worth going back through to get back on track for seeing Death Valley?
As we sat at the table, the barman started arm wrestling with one of the local hillbillies. The conversation turned to how we thought hillbillies only lived in hills? Then we realised we were still about 3000ft up. Mum also noted that most of the women were pregnant, and wore waistcoats. I don't know why that's important, maybe its just one of those woman-facts?
Anyway, I keep forgetting that Mum, Dad and Vic are only out here for a couple of weeks. As I talked about alternative routes and moving on, they started talking about 'needing a break'?? I forgot that they actually want to unwind from normal life, as opposed to me who spends each day unwound.
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9/11 (03)
I spent a lot of the day between the swimming pool and watching TV. The swimming pool was good as we had both the indoor and outdoor pools to ourselves, as well as the Jacuzzi. The good thing about staying in average-ville, USA, is that no one in their right mind would choose to spend anytime here. Which is good as the place is actually quite nice!
With my 'Media' hat on, and as it was the second anniversary of the Sept 11th attacks, I spent a lot of time watching TV. Partially because of 'just-in-case' and partially because I wanted to see how it was handled in a country renowned for its globally introverted (except for its war-mongering) nature.
Between all the newsreaders and politicians recalling with glee how terrible that day was for them. After the genuinely sad stories of the victims families were heard and Dubya did his concerned chimp impression on the Whitehouse lawn, there was only really one clear, logical, un-sentimental, un-sensationalised view which was probably closest to the truth on the current situation. Bravo, on channel 47, was showing a random re-run of 'The West Wing.' I've never really watched the show so I don't know the characters, but if the current Bush administration had the clear headed views of just one of them (explaining terrorism to a class of Politics students), instead of the over-patriotic, bordering on nationalistic view of the current situation, I think the world would be a better place.
We had dinner that night in a really nice resort by a lake about 15 minutes from Oakhurst. On the way back to town, we found a bar further up the road from the one last night. I didn't know if it was going to be full of Hillbillies so I was preparing a story to get us 'in' with the locals; "Hi, my name's Matt, and this is my Mum and my sister.' 'And this is just my sister.' Anyway, it turned out alright, and certainly not full of arm-wrestling yokels so it was a pretty good night.