Starting Over

I left Ely, NV about 6:30am. Things must be changing as I never get up that early. I left after a McDonalds egg biscuit and headed into the rain. It rained nearly the way and I am extremely grateful I decided to buy new tires before this trip. The old ones would have proved dangerous at 75 through tight corners.

The drive was nice but I don't really like it when they put the mileage of a far distant city I'm headed towards on the sign. In this case, Carson City 300 miles. It's like leaving San Antonio on I-10 and a sign stating El Paso 640 miles on the way to LA. Man that is the longest road ever, counting down 639....638...637.

The road I was on was Highway 50 and it traverses the length of Nevada. It's called the Loneliest Highway and it definitely lived up to its name. On the way I witnessed the highest gasoline prices I have ever seen. Click the image to see the prices.

I also got to see a tree full of shoes. I looked to see if people were throwing in their fashionable new kicks into the tree but all I saw were nurse looking white shoes and old Converse.

I'm glad I wasn't this poor guy today. I love riding and all but I'm a pretty fair weather rider. If it's raining and 40 degrees I'm staying home.

I landed in Tahoe around 1:00 and stopped off at Best Buy to return a pair of headphones. The sun started to peek out and the drive into Tahoe got better and better.

The first hike of the day came up shortly after passing through S. Lake Tahoe. I stopped at the Fallen Leaf Trail and began hiking up a gravel road.

I was walking along, minding my own business when I glanced right and saw a black bear. I looked forward again and for a split second didn't think anything of it. It was as if the bear wasn't real; like seeing a stuffed bear at an amusement park or Cabela's. It suddenly hit me and my heart started racing. Oh shit. I turned around and took a few slow steps back in the direction I had come. I snapped a quick picture and got the hell out of there. He looked directly at me and didn't seem to care. It was totally surreal.

I was decently shaken. When I got to the area where I parked I walked up to a couple getting out of their car and told them I had just seen a bear. They informed me that they had seen one up there a few weeks ago. Probably the same one. We took the hike to Fallen Leaf Lake together.

They had their two dogs and they were great people. She was originally from Thailand and they lived in the Bay area. We got to the lake and just chilled for a while watching the dogs play.

We hiked back to our cars and said farewell. It is really cool meeting people from all over on these trips. Meeting like minded people that appreciate and take advantage of nature and enjoy soaking it all in. I continued on the drive to Emerald Point. It was a very touristy overlook but it definitely offered some breathtaking scenery. I have really enjoyed shooting digital on this trip. The last trip 4 years ago I shot mostly Velvia 50 and when it would get dark I would have to open up all the way and lose the depth of field. Now I can just set the ISO to 400 or 800 in a flash and shoot away.

I also saw a cool house way down below on the beach that was cool to shoot with my 300 lens.

I got to my hotel and checked in around 6:30. The girl at the front desk was from Chile so I spoke Spanish with her. I'm still amazed that after 14 years of not taking any Spanish I can still remember a lot of it. With math I can't even do basic Algebra any longer. Don't want to frankly. I love speaking the language and it was fun joking around in Spanish. There is a genuineness to South American women that I really like.

So I haven't really watched tv in a week. I don't even miss it. I had really become addicted to tv and I basically became a slave to my Tivo. I would feel like I had to get my recorded shows done and watched as if I had some sort of daily itinerary. I'm not one of those self righteous idiots that goes around blaring that he or she doesn't have a tv, as if they are too good for it. I'm sure I'll pick it back up in the future but for now it's nice not to desire it. All I can say is the Olympics are coming up and I'll have to figure out a way to watch the swimming and gymnastics. Not to mention the Tour de France and the World Championships. Here I go again....