Category: Pacific Coast

To Fort Bragg

Fortunately, no bears broke into our car at Camp Richardson. We grabbed some coffee from the lobby, hauled our toys back to the car and set out for the California coast.

Our route took us up the west side of Lake Tahoe. It was on a bicycle trip around this alpine pond that Dianne and I met. I was leading a Sierra Club bicycle trip around Tahoe with two of my buddies and Dianne was the only one to sign up.

One of the most scenic spots along Tahoe’s western shore is Emerald Bay.

There’s a nice pull-off there where for a mere $6, we could park for 30 minutes and admire the view.

We continued around Tahoe and into Truckee where we had breakfast at a longtime favorite restaurant located there.

It occupies a narrow, cubbyhole site downtown, hence the “Squeeze In” name.

They specialize in omelettes. I opted for the Lake Taco version – three eggs stuffed with Chorizo sautéed with red onions, tomatoes and bell peppers with Jack cheese. Yumm!

From Truckee, we turned onto Interstate 80 and drove over Donner Pass. Following the Subaru’s GPS instructions, we exited onto California Highway 20…

…and followed that across the Central Valley and over the coastal hills now gilded with autumn grasses.

Along the way, we got to enjoy numerous construction zones.

Arriving in Fort Bragg, we checked into our motel…

…and headed off for dinner at a seaside, open-air restaurant in the fog and mist…

…where we enjoyed sourdough bread bowls filled with delicious clam chowder.

Up to Tahoe

Our visitation with the in-laws over, we loaded up our toys and headed out for breakfast. Our destination was the nearby Cowboy’s Cafe, a favorite of Dianne’s relatives.

There, I splurged and ordered a two-egg breakfast with a big slab of chicken-fried steak smothered in white gravy. The restaurant was great, but I’m afraid that this sort of Texas-style breakfast will never rate high on my favorite’s list.

Dianne left her laptop at her sister’s house in Carson City, so we exited town by heading 15 miles north to Carson. Computer back in the car, we decided to drive the scenic route back by way of Genoa with a stop at Mormon Station State Historic Park.

Nevada’s first permanent, non-native settlement holds a replica of the original trading post, built in 1851.

After a short visit there, we drove up through the town of South Lake Tahoe and on to our lodging at the Camp Richardson Hotel, an edifice that’s more than a century old.

Like many old hotels, it featured a spacious lobby…

…and small, rather spartan rooms.

Dinner that evening was at Camp Richardson’s Grove restaurant, which sits on the shore of Lake Tahoe…

…offering views like this.

They warned us that bears frequent the area and warned us to make sure we took all of the food out of the car, which, of course, we did. The only bear we encountered, however, was this guy standing across the street from the hotel.

Visiting the In-Laws

We booked three nights at the Quality Inn to allow time for a good visit with the in-laws. We arrived on Sunday afternoon at their home in Gardnerville, Nevada, where we had dinner with Dianne’s parents, Dianne’s sister, Nancy, and her husband, Kelly.

On Monday, Dianne and her mother went shopping while I hung out at the motel processing photos and just relaxing.

Tuesday was a more exciting day. Dianne and her sister took their 95-year-old mother up to Lake Tahoe for a picnic. Accompanying the more elderly females were Nancy’s daughter, Christa, and her two teenage daughters. Four generations celebrating a girls’ day out.

While the ladies were having fun, I took the Subaru into Carson City to have the oil changed. On my way out of town, I stopped into the bank building where I first worked in Nevada some 50 years ago. It was Nevada National Bank (not Plumas) back then.

I still have nightmares about those days long ago when I actually had to work for a living.

Across Nevada

After breakfast burritos at Riva’s Mexican Grill (which sits directly across the road from our motel), the second day of our Left Coast adventure involved a 300+ mile drive across the state of Nevada.

We were traveling on U.S. Highway 50, which decades ago Life Magazine declared to be the “Loneliest Road in America.”

It was Sunday morning and traffic was light with miles of open highway sporting nary another vehicle in front nor behind us.

The landscape offered strips of north-south running mountain ranges separated by wide-open valleys or basins.

Hillsides displayed slopes of dark barren rock occasionally blanketed with scattered patches of piñon and juniper trees.

The basins between the ranges were rife with sagebrush, rabbit brush and the occasional cow.

While I prefer slickrock canyons or glacier-clad mountains, I do appreciate the stark beauty to this part of the Great Basin Desert. 

We stopped for photos on a hillside above Austin, Nevada. I watched as vehicles pulling travel trailers passed by.

While it’s nice to be able to sleep in our own little cabin on wheels, I was certainly enjoying not having to drag our trailer along on this trip!

We arrived in Minden, Nevada, and checked into our room at the Quality Inn motel. Unlike other Quality Inns, this one does not offer breakfast, the room lacks an in-room coffee maker, there’s no alarm clock and the shower-mounted shampoo dispenser was bone dry. Our quarters may be more spacious here, but I enjoyed the room at the Grand Central in Ely far more.

We hauled our toys out of the car, locked the room, and headed over to have dinner with the in-laws.

Off to Ely

We’re off on another camping trip, this one in the Subaru. On this trip, we will endure thee weeks of overnight camping in a series of motels and hotels as we proceed up the Left Coast.  No trailer to pull. No tent to erect. No meals to cook.

The first leg of our adventure was the drive across Utah from Fruita, Colorado, to Ely, Nevada.

Our first stop was in Green River, Utah, to buy a pair of watermelons to share with the in-laws.

Then it was on west through the rugged reef of rock known as the San Rafael Swell.

We exited the interstate in Salina, Utah, for lunch at Mom’s Café. 

From there, we followed U.S. 50 to Scipio where we bought MAGA-priced fuel at a Flying Pilot station along I-15.  It will be more expensive as we head west.

We continued west on U.S. 50 into the emptiness of western Utah. 

While not spectacular, the landscape offers a feeling of spacious openness…

…and out here, it’s miles between civilization and gas stations, something that freaks out first time visitors from the East.  It’s also miles between formal potty stops.

We finally pulled into Ely and drove straight to our motel, which is owned by Dianne’s nephew…

…and checked into our room.  It’s not the Four Seasons, but it’s clean, comfortable and priced right.

Dinner will be a bag of popcorn and a bottle of wine.