Visting California

[kevin_standlee]

So two days after officially becoming a Nevadan, what do I do? Head back to California, of course. Lisa is with me for this final week in the apartment, where she will help me move out the final van-load of stuff. We got away from Fernley earlier than I usually do and headed west. After stopping for breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Cafe in downtown Truckee, we decided to take the scenic route up Donner Lake Road, because the spring is here and the snow is melting, so we had to concern ourselves with neither chain controls nor ski-resort-related traffic. There were a lot of bicyclists, though.

We stopped at the parking area overlooking the "Chinese Wall," built by Chinese laborers as part of the route of the original Transcontinental Railroad. Southern Pacific abandoned this routing as being too difficult and expensive to keep open, so today there's only a single-track line, the "Big Hole" under the Sierra summit.

Lisa sits on a granite outcrop just below the parking area with travelswithkuma looking at the little snowmelt-fed stream with Donner Lake below.

Donner Lake sits sparkling in the spring sunshine. Donner Pass Road (old US-40) runs along the north side of the lake before snaking up to this point. Donner Pass itself is a short distance to the west of where this photo was taken.

There were quite a few rock climbers making their way up and down this granite point (through which the "Chinese Wall" leads to a now-abandoned tunnel).

Lisa enjoyed the view, but her tinnitus was giving her fits today, making it hard for her to enjoy anything at all, and after a few minutes we returned to the van and continued the trip west.

I followed Donner Pass Road as far as I could over the summit and then down to the point where it forces you back onto I-80. We had an annoying slowdown just before Colfax where a truck had had some sort of mishap and the right lane was closed while they cleaned up the diesel spill. After a short stop at my usual Starbucks, we continued on our way down to the valley. We stopped at Fry's in Sacramento because it was convenient for a rest stop and because Lisa needed more earphones for her tinnitus-masking sound setup. Then it was on to Lodi Jct. on I-5 where we stopped at the Flying J for fuel and dinner at Denny's before the final run back to San Jose.

Lisa said she was impressed with how much advance moving-out I've done and says she doesn't see us having any difficulty with the final removal of my stuff. The most complicated job is disassembling the IKEA desk, but she put it back together after we moved it here from Fremont and knows how it works. She twist-tied a bag with the hex-head tools to the desk when she assembled it, and the bag is still there. Everything else, she says, should fit into the empty boxes we brought. Fingers crossed that this will be a smooth move-out this week.

Comments

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Those are beautiful photographs - Thank you. Good Luck with your move.

A virtual gift - traditional Estonian - of salt, bread & vodka - when you arrive back home.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm fortunate to have grown up around some of the greatest scenery in the world, in my opinion. It took me traveling elsewhere to discover how good I have had it growing up and living in Northern California and now Nevada.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Now I'm trying to remember where we had lunch in Truckee on the way back from the Worldcon. It was a diner-type place just outside of downtown, at a corner by the rail tracks, and it was pretty good.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I know the one you mean. We actually went there first (having parked at the free parking at the east end of downtown, the diner was closer), but there was a 30 minute wait and we balked. The Wagon Wheel was good enough, and the walls were covered with photos and artwork of trains, which was just fine by us.