29th August 2010

We both woke up feeling a little tender after the previous night's festivities. It's not often that I have cause to drink a gallon of beer these days. We took our time to wake up and eventually made our way to Dee Dee's for breakfast, after having a shower, but not before talking to an American chap who was wiping his '55 Oldsmobile down in readiness for a show. He told us about how you start off with a certain number of points and how points are deducted for the slightest non-original thing that the judges can spot. His wife was the driver. We did not set off from the motel until 10:30. We filled up in Lodi as the fuel was relatively cheap. We took the 88 towards Jackson and on again through to Kirkwood, heading towards Lake Tahoe.

The 88 rises quite sharply South of Lake Tahoe. We went through Carson Pass, the altitude of which is stated as 8560 feet on our map. We stopped at Cook's Station for a coffee, served to us by Connie.

We had previously stopped at Cook's Station on our 2008 road trip. It was a bit warmer back then though. We also stopped at the vista point after Cook's. Throughout the day the weather remained chilly. The gauge on my bike read below 40f for most of today and I can assure you we were bloody freezing. We turned on to highway 50 for a short while on our way to the 89 and the West side of Lake Tahoe. We stopped at South Lake Tahoe for a coffee in a Mexican restaurant but they didn't have any (doh) so we went next door to another cafe.

Lake Tahoe

  Their coffee was cold but at least it was free if we promised to go back there for dinner. We made our promises and then set off never to return.  We stopped at the West Tahoe Vista point and took photos. I had a hot dog with chilli and cheese. Before leaving the vista point we decided to put our waterproofs on as it was too cold for comfort.  It was a good job we did because it started pissing down about 2 minutes after setting off. The rain briefly turned to hail stones, which thankfully dissipated quickly. The rain didn't last long but we got caught in a couple of heavy showers, which, along with the cold, managed to dampen spirits slightly but we kept going. Feeling slightly warmer after putting my waterproofs on, I somehow managed to find our situation amusing: coming all the way to America to get rained on and experience temperatures colder than those we had left in the UK.I was chuckling to myself as we went along. We stopped in Truckee for fuel and also to try to photo a fantastic rainbow that was filling a large part of the sky. The resulting photo doesn't do it justice. We carried on through Sierraville and then branched off the 89 on to the 49 towards Loyalton. We stopped in Loyalton to ask how much a room was at the Golden West motel. On my way in, a strange lady held the door  open for me. She didn't look like she was playing with a full deck. When I said thanks she just stared at me. Quite spooky really. I don't think they get much new blood in Loyalton and would suggest that the populace must face quite a challenge trying to work out who is a cousin and who is an aunt (or both). The landlady of the motel was not very friendly and the room seemed expensive at $78. All this resulted in us moving on from Loyalton swiftly. We eventually landed up in Portola and pulled in to the Sierra motel. The receptionist was nice but at $85 dollars the room was almost twice as expensive as a Motel 6. We consulted the satnav for other options but grey clouds were gathering and motels further along the route seemed to have similar prices. We got our keys to room 131 and parked up. 

The room decor was dodgy at best but at least was clean. Not worth the extra over Motel 6 though. To my disappointment, I found a hole in my waterproof leggings where they had touched the exhaust pipe and melted. After settling in and Bill warming up in front of the air con for a bit (at 90 degrees), we walked down to Jimmie's Road House 70 to get some food. We had a very nice cheeseburger and fries with coffee.

When we returned to the room we watched Salt (Angelina Jolie) on the iPad and the highlights of the US Indianapolis MotoGP.

I got in to bed to write the diary and we watched tv in bed.

The odometer read 45025 when we parked up, which means we have travelled 231 miles this day and 649 miles since picking up the bikes.