SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2011

Placerville, California to Reno, Nevada

141 miles/1,158.9 miles

In my previous blog, I didn't note that Dale and Myanna had presented me with a festive Birthday Cake, albeit, a few days before my birthday; therefore, the cake is appropriately festooned with "62" rather than my new number, now, 63.  It was scrumptous! 


Joe's Birthday Cake



After we all stayed up until at least 1:30 am talking last night, I got up at 7:00 am to read a bit of Motorcycle Diaries (previously mentioned, a book the chronicles a motorcycle trip that makes our current Adventure look like a bit like trip down to the corner market to get some milk), and then spent some time trying to figure out an easier way of manipulating photos I wanted to use in the blog.  After breakfast, Myanna showed me some free software that I downloaded that makes it much easier to re-size and crop photos for blog use. 

Joe and Dale

Once out of the camper shell that Dale set up for me to sleep in, it was time for breakfast, which coincided with the somewhat miraculous fact of Don having gotten up, unprecedented, I believe, before 12 noon – without prodding!  Dale and Myanna made pancakes and set out coffee and orange juice, all followed by  hunched-over-a-map conversation with Dale, Al and me, with Dale noting some spots along the way with hot springs, should we decide to test the waters.

Dale, Setting up for Breakfast; Joe Doing Nothing to Help



Dale, Al and Joe Consult the Map.....

....and Find Something Humorous

Prior to departure, Dale took us on a short walk on the 127-acre, peacefully quiet, Lyselaire, which has an 800-foot elevation differential from the high point of the property to the low point, allowing for wonderful views across the canyon, and home to – in addition to Dale and Myanna - fox, deer, vultures whirling above, the ever-present chipmunks and squirrels scurrying about, and an occasionally-sighted mountain lion.  


Given the timetable of our trip that has to see me back in Vancouver by Sunday, June 26, we were left with a too-short visit with Dale and Myanna, but appreciative of their generous hospitality and warm remembrances of Dale’s and my long friendship, and the reconnection with Myanna, who Dale and I met 40 years ago during our one year of living in Copenhagen, Denmark as architecture students in 1971-72.  They even served Danish beer, which Myanna brought back from Denmark!  Skol!! 



View from Dale's Property to Across the Canyon

Al and Joe on the Walk



Myanna and Joe on the Walk

Too short, to be sure, Al and I prepared to depart from Dale and Myanna's place, ready to begin our journey together and head to Reno, to pick up Al's friend, Tom Bodine.  Prior to leaving, we all took photographs to document our visit.

Dale, Myanna and Joe



The Don and Joe



Joe, Al, Myanna, Dale and Don



Dale and Joe Share a Laugh Together

Myanna, Dale and Don

Don "Assists" Dale in Setting up a Photo

Al, Joe and Dale - Packed and Ready to Go, Then....

.....Al Departs........

.....Then Joe

We left Dale’s around 2:00 pm, with Myanna’s remaining cookies in hand, taking the amazingly convoluted, twisting and turning Route 49 in and around the canyons between Placerville and Auburn, to get to Route 80 that would take us to Tom’s house in Reno, Nevada, about 140 miles, east, from Dale’s – anticipated to be the shortest day of the trip in miles covered.  Route 49, characterized by Dale as “having a few turns,” had approximately 1,238 turns, a number of which were true hairpins (5 mph!!).

Of course, normally, I wouldn’t make a big deal of it but, when I called Dale at the end of the day from Reno, to let him know we had made it OK, he mentioned that, in tracking our path on the Spotter web-site, he noticed that, from the Placerville town center, we had gone some distance in the wrong direction, then turned around to backtrack a bit, to find Route 49.  He wondered aloud, “Isn’t that Blog Worthy?”  So, not wanting the taint of “covering up" our misdirection, I feel a clarification is warranted: I was following Al and his GPS guide-lady and we came to a stop sign, with another sign clearly indicating Route 49 to the left.  We went straight.  Clearly, the GPS lady was taking us to Reno via side streets, a process that would see us in Reno sometime later in the month!  After a few miles, uncertainly set in for Al and he stopped; I then led us onto a Route 50 on-ramp, west to pickup Route 49.  Be wary of those GPS devices; “she” talks to you in all confidence, but “she” has her weaknesses. 

Once on Route 80, we headed across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a mountain range about 400 miles long, north-to-south, and approximately 70 miles wide, west-to-east, and includes Yosemite National Park, Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 ft. (4,421 m), the highest peak in the continental U.S., to the north, and Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America, which is east of Placerville.  The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. “More than 100 million years ago, granite formed deep underground,” and the range started to uplift the granite some 4 million years ago, where erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that we see today.

When we left Dale’s place, it was close to 90 degrees F (32 C), and we took off all layers, with the exception of our protective riding gear and helmets.  Once into the mountains, and as we ascended towards the pass, to around 7,900 ft. elevation, the temperature dropped as we rode by snow on each side of the highway.  It was BRRRR! cold, particularly at 60+ mph (96 kph) and we wished for a couple of more layers.  Fortunately, as we descended towards Reno, the cold fell away behind us and we toughed it out.  After all, we are Men on an Adventure!

Route 80 goes through the infamous Donner Pass where, in the winter of 1846-47, a group of emigrants, traveling west, due to heavy snows, had to winter over in the mountains.  Of 87 emigrants, only 48 of the Donner Party survived.  It was alleged that they survived by dining on their less-fortunate companions.  It is not known what wine was served for dinner.

Around 5 pm we arrived at Tom’s house and, because he was also tracking our progress on-line, he was waiting with his camera as we drove up his driveway.  Tom and his wife, Kathy, after many years of living abroad in a variety of posts, working for the U.S. government, retired to Reno a few years ago, and have a lovely home and garden and we spent a most-pleasant evening in conversation over dinner and coffee under the trees.  For the carnivores, the largest steaks I had ever seen were served – Al’s, alone, would have allowed for the survival of the entire Donner Party in that terrible winter of 1846-47!

It was after dinner, after everyone else had gone to bed, that I stayed up until 1:30 am putting together the day’s blog, only to have it disappear when I clicked on “publish!”  I went to bed at 2:00 am in a somewhat foul mood, figuratively shaking my fist at the Cyber God.  Most discouraging, to say the least, though a lesson learned, hard as it may be.  My son, Devin, suggested I write the blog entries in Word, to preclude any such loss in the future.  Good advice, which I am now adhering to.