Day 2 - Lake Tahoe to Monterey - Part 1

I’m not sure what I expected of Lake Tahoe, but whatever it was, it did not match up to what the place actually is. Lake Tahoe is - to describe it in 1 word - BEAUTIFUL!

Lake Tahoe with snow covered mountains in the background - Beautiful

Things I knew about Lake Tahoe:

1. It’s a lake

2. You get ski resorts nearby (like Heavenly and Squaw Valley)

3. It is in Nevada and California.

What I didn’t know:

1. It is stunning!

2. You get sandy beaches by to the lake

3. You can rent a boat and go fishing in it or just cruise the lake

4. You can travel all around the lake and visit all the cute little shops

5. If Aspen and Las Vegas had a baby, its name would be Lake Tahoe because it has the style and class of Aspen and the fun and party feel of Las Vegas

Sandy "beaches" in Lake Tahoe

We checked out of the hotel and headed to the car. I realized then, for the umpteenth time, that I did not bring a coat or a jacket (what a doofus!), so I had to do what I could to keep warm. Unfortunately it resulted in a many layered and not very stylish look - oh well, at least I was warm-ish.

After making a few photo stops at Lake Tahoe (we didn’t do the drive around the lake this time, but we will definitely go back to do it next time), we decided to make our way to our next stop, Monterey, CA. The mountain pass was quite interesting to say the least. It was very pretty, but the roads were so tiny and dodgy, with huge potholes, that I could not imagine how long it would take people to get to the slopes. (by the way, this dodgy road theme continued throughout California - they really don‘t have the $$$ to fix their roads).

Yay Green!

When we finally left the mountain behind, I felt like a kid on my way through Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory. Everything was so green and there were cows grazing everywhere. There is an advertisement on American TV that says “Happy cows are from California”. Oh my word - that is so true, I swear I could hear Bessie and her friends giggling as their little tails moved/almost wagged with happiness.

Reality check on the green-ness of the landscape: I was told that this is not a year-round occurrence…BOOOOO!!!! Oh well, it made me truly happy to be surrounded by so much green - even if it only lasts for a few months.

Vines...love

The first sighting of a vine sent me into an unexplained feeling of total bliss and belonging. Yay grapes…yay wine…I felt at home. Right then and there I decided that one day…I would like to live in California.

The Road Trip - Day 1

We decided to do most of the driving on the first and last days of our road trip. We drove 16 hours during our first day. Yes, 16 hours was a lot, and yes, we were both fed-up when we got to Lake Tahoe, but it was also quite the interesting drive. During the 16 hours we saw every kind of landscape that you can think of: rocky mountains, plains, desert and rolling hills. We also experienced all 4 seasons and every weather condition during our drive: temperatures ranging from -3 to 20 degrees Celsius, rain, snow, sunshine, clouds.

Miles and miles of a whole lot of nothing

Our drive in southern Wyoming was pretty uneventful. Our only form of entertainment were the hilarious (unintentionally so) billboards along the way. My favourite restaurant billboard said…Apple Pie…Oh la la. Really? You spend thousands on a gigantic billboard and you only have a photo of an apple pie and those words on it?

Brrrrrr

We then became quite fascinated by the prospect of driving past Little America. According to the billboards, this place was something to see. A great place for the whole family. An amazing vacation spot. Fabulous restaurant. That all changed when I saw the 1980’s style picture of a piece of steak with fanned out asparagus and oddly placed potato - I then realized that this place could not be as fabulous as they were making it out to be). For 2 hours we were wondering about Little America. It took us all of 3 seconds to drive past it and NO, it didn’t live up to all they hype.

mmmm...Little America....

After hours of driving, the conversation and general excitement died down a bit and I decided to take a nap. I could normally fall asleep in any car, but the loudness of the rain on the windshield kept waking me up. Finally when I couldn’t take it anymore, I got a not-so-great surprise: we were almost out of petrol and the next town was at least 50 miles away - eeeeek! We started driving much slower and I sat with my legs under me, in a tiny ball of nerves, wondering what we would do if we did run out of petrol. Would we leave everything in the car and risk all of our belongings getting stolen on our first day or would I stay in the car while my hubby goes on a petrol hunt and risk being possibly kidnapped or/and attacked by a stranger in a rapist van. Oh the pressure! Luckily, just before the needle touched the last and final red line, we reached a tiny little town with a petrol station. Remember this VERY important lesson: when driving in the dessert, NEVER let your car get too empty, because garages can be few and far between!

Interesting landscapes

About an hour before we were due to arrive in Lake Tahoe, I had had enough. Luckily we drove through a tiny little town called Genoa. According to the sign it was the 1st settlement in Nevada and it was just the most adorable little town. That day the place was full of life and abuzz with the sounds of people laughing and chatting, because they were celebrating during their annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival - if I wasn‘t desperate to get to our hotel after 15 hours of driving, I would have loved to attend the festival - it looked and sounded like so much fun! Such a cute place.

Sunset in Lake Tahoe - worth the drive

Once we finally arrived in Lake Tahoe, I quickly shook off the long drive. We went to our hotel room, changed and started walking around. The views of Lake Tahoe were breathtaking and from the bar on the top floor of the hotel, we could see the sun set while sipping on a glass of something cold and bubbly. The perfect way to unwind after such a grueling day of traveling. After sundowners we were starving so we popped into a Mexican restaurant in Havey’s Hotel & Casino called Cabo Wabo. Their Guacamole & Chips and Carne Asada was spectacular. (I’m not sure if it was really that good or if it was just the fact that we were famished and beyond tired.) Our first night we opted out of gambling. With 4 hours of sleep and long hours on the road, all we wanted to do was to fall on the bed and sleep. Unfortunately our sleep was not as peaceful as we had hoped…moderately to extremely intoxicated people were running and screaming in the corridors and when the guy next door arrived at his room he knocked and knocked until the whole floor was open. When his girlfriend finally opened the door, he entered the room by screaming (at the top of his lungs) “show me some boobies!!!” It just goes to show…when a hotel offers you an upgrade for only $30 more, you should seriously consider it…

13 Must-haves for a successful Road-trip!

1. A reliable car - obviously

2. A road-trip Anthem - something fun and exciting to get you in a party mood! (Don’t forget other music too - you don’t want to get tired of your anthem within the 1st hour of your trip)

3. Cooler bag with water, drinks (wine, beer, whatever) - the driving part will get extremely tedious if you have to stop each time when you get thirsty. Also, you might have a room with a little balcony and killer view, so a cool bottle of something nice will be perfect to sip on while the sun sets. Finally - and not very pleasant - imagine your car breaks down in the middle of the desert (to prevent that, see tip no 1)

4. Power-/breakfast-bars: Hunger strikes at the oddest times

5. Emergency First-Aid kit - you never know when you might slip and fall down in front of the entire town, skulk away to your car with blood running down your foot, leaving your skin and pride behind on the pavement. (Damn you, you dodgy pavement in Carmel-by-the-sea!)

6. Map and/or GPS - I prefer to have both. The GPS system gets you to your venue easier/faster than an irritated, tired, view-watching navigator with a map, but having a map is a good thing, because you can see the whole area and perhaps find some other cool places that you should visit.

7. Something warm: ALWAYS take a coat, jacket or a sweater, because you can’t always rely on the 10-day weather forecast. I packed for a summer holiday, but it was still spring, so some mornings and evenings were quite chilly and I didn’t have anything warm. How I let that happen, goodness only knows. My mom taught me to pack for all seasons and occasions, so she would have a full sized suitcase for a weekend away. My grand-ma’s suitcase is always big enough to store a corpse in. Why did I not listen…why???

8. Stories - the road gets long, so hopefully you’ve got an arsenal of stories that the other person(s) have not yet heard or won‘t mind hearing again.

9. Swiss-army thingy-ma-jiggy - you never know when you need to cut/chop something

10. Sunblock and hat - the sun can get hectic - just because it isn’t boiling doesn’t mean that you are not burning and just because you can feel the cool breeze through your hair, does not mean that the sun isn’t doing spit-braai on your scalp…trust me…I had the painful red scalp to prove it.

11. Patience - with the road, other drivers, each other…basically, just remember that you are on holiday.

12. Flexibility - things don’t always work out as planned, so you need to be chilled and go with the flow

13. Fun! Seriously…don’t forget to have fun - make sure you stop at enough places to see and do some great things, because viewing everything from the seat of your car is not exactly the best way to have fun or to see the world.

From 1-10 in a flash!

Thirteen days ago, we embarked on a great adventure - a 10-day road trip from Colorado to the Central Coast of California and Las Vegas.

I've been back at home now for 3 days and I just can't believe it went by in such a flash!

We left on Friday April 30th at 4am in the morning with great excitement and very little sleep. (I always tell myself that I will finish all the packing for a trip the weekend before we leave, but as usual, we had to scramble the night before to throw everything into our suitcases.)

As we got on the I25 North towards Wyoming, I decided on our trip anthem - after all, every good road trip has a great theme song! My choice was P Diddy's "Hello, Good Morning". It just seemed right because it makes me want to shake what my momma gave me and it did feel like it was going to be a Good Morning - in fact, it was going to be a GREAT morning and we were going to have a few of them in a row. 

10 Days later, our trip back home from Las Vegas, was met with a lot less excitement and I didn't even feel like listening to our anthem, or any other song, for that matter. On the way back I was thinking about real life back home and work that waited for me. I also thought back with fondness about all the great things we did, moments shared, food eaten, wine consumed and sites visited. I loved it all - the good and the bad. (unfortunately a few bad things did happen, but I'll tell you about that later - nothing serious, but just not pleasant).

Below are some photos of all the states we entered on our trip. Unfortunately I missed Wyoming, but it was still dark outside and really too early to be that quick with the camera. (Oh oops, yes, I also don't have one for California....mmmm)

Entering Mormon Country

Heading for Viva Las Vegas!

Heading back home - blah!