Day 6 Lake Tahoe

I got up at my usual time, 6:30 AM. Chuck, my roommate for the night, was doing his Rip Van Winkle impersonation and was still asleep. After I was all dressed and packed, Chuck got up and dressed. We all walked to the office for breakfast. At dinner last night, C.E. mentioned that he needed to do some laundry and Bruce needed to go to the Verizon store because he was still having problems with his cell phone. After breakfast, C.E. rode to the laundry mat in the strip mall next door. Jan rode his Motor to a nearby hardware store to buy a part for his Harley. The rest of us walked to the laundry mat. We were there doing our laundry when Jan called me on the cell and told me that he was back from the parts store and was coming over to do his laundry also. We were all in the laundry mat having a good time, washing, drying, folding clothes and packing. We finished and returned to the motel to pack up our Motors and get ready to leave.

Jan and I were left at the laundry mat. I left Jan folding while I walked back. I packed my Motor and rode it to the office area where everyone was. We waited for Jan and later we heard his Harley coming. We heard the Harley and then it became silent. I thought that he had turned the engine off and was coasting. He parked the Motor with the others and came to us telling us that there was something wrong with his Harley...imagine that! He took off his seat and luggage rack to get to his battery. Jan thought that he needed a new battery but he jiggled a couple of wires and it started up again. Problem solved. It was a wire to the battery that was kinked. He put his Motor back together again and we were all ready to leave. We left at 11:25 AM.

We had decided during breakfast that we were going to go to Lake Tahoe. Bruce was leading and we headed eastbound on I-80. After riding for 44 miles we stopped at 11:59 AM in Emigrant Gap, CA for gas. After gassing up our Motors and it was a little past noon, there was a Burger King on the property so we went in and had lunch. We left at 12:53 PM.

It was C.E.'s turn to lead. We continue eastbound on I-80 and turned south on Hwy 89 towards Lake Tahoe. We rode through Squaw Valley, the site of a past Winter Olympics. We got into North Lake Tahoe at at 1:45 PM after riding 47 miles. It was time for a desperate pit stop! Crap! There were NO public restrooms at the Seven Eleven store. I pointed to a J-Jon across the street to Chuck, but he declined. We continued eastbound around the lake. WHAT A HUGE LAKE! We left at 1:47 PM. C.E. was leading and Chuck was behind C.E. Five miles later at 1:55 PM, Chuck pulled over at a "pull out" area. The urge went away and this was a great spot for a photo op. We took several pictures of one another. On some, the photographer was standing in the street and a couple of times cars came by honking at us. What nerve! We left at 2:04 PM.

OK, 2 miles later at 2:15 PM, C.E., still leading, stopped at a Chevron station in Kings Beach, NV. Relief at last! We all enjoyed the pit stop. Afterwards, we took a break and looked across the street and the massive lake. We left at 2:36 PM.

C.E. was still leading and we rode through Lake Tahoe, NV. and headed toward Carson City, NV. We rode through Carson City and Virginia City. (We said,"Hi" to the Cartwright's for you). When we went north of Virginia City, we were on US 395. This was a two lane, mountainous, curvy road that we enjoyed very much. We have to ride this road again! I was to the rear of the group and took a 3 minute video of the ride. I held the camera on my right hand and controlled the throttle and and brake with my right. This made it a great ride for me! You should see this video.

We got to the base of the mountain and stopped in Washoe City, NV at 4:16 PM after riding for 61 miles. We needed a break. While we were on our break, several cop cars, a fire truck and an ambulance were running with lights and sirens eastbound. A few blocks back, a motorcyclist or two had crashed. One of our group, I don't remember who, went into a ditch and made a quick pit stop. Sorry, but I'm sure that it was necessary. Don't worry, no one saw him nor did I take any pictures. Maybe next time!

We left at 4:30 PM. C.E. was still leading and we rode westbound riding through Reno, NV. No ladies, we didn't stop to gamble. This is a MOTORCYCLE RIDE! We headed westbound and at 5:18 PM we stopped in Truckee, CA after riding 48 miles. We stopped for gas and, you guessed it, another pit stop. I'm sorry, we had a lot of water and coffee earlier! We left at 5:38 PM.

We were en route to a small town called, "Yuba City, CA" which we had talked about earlier in the day. there was a Best Western there and that was our destination for the evening stop. Chuck was now in the lead and we were on I-80 and connected with Hwy 20. We had never been on Hwy 20 and didn't know what to expect except that it lead us to Yuba City. We were on Hwy 20 for a short time when we realized that it was a great motorcycle road. It was a two lane road with numerous curves and varying speeds. The temperature went from 68 degrees from Truckee and it bounced up and down and finally rose to 84 when we arrived in Yuba City. At one point we were going through the forest road curving left and right and reached a speed of about 55 to 60. It had a speed limit of 45mph. We were enjoying the ride and, yes, we were doing it safely. At one point we came out of the forest and came into a clearing and down the road, there was a CHP car working radar. He was pointed in our direction. Chuck saw the CHP car in plenty of time and slowed down to 45 mph. Way to go Chuck! After we passed him, we sped up. :)

We arrived in Yuba City, CA. at 7:14 PM after 92.8 miles of riding. We checked into our rooms and it was a large motel property. We had to ride our Motors to the "lower 40" to get to our rooms. We parked our Motors in from of our rooms, got our bags and tucked our Motors in for the night. After going to our upstairs rooms, we noticed that our rooms had a back door! These back doors led us to a courtyard where the pool and hot tub were. We ALL changed into our bathing suits and enjoyed the hot tub! We were there for a while and the returned to our rooms, changed and went to the restaurant on site for dinner. Just prior to dinner, we were all in my room and I had totalled the miles ridden for the day. I told the group that the person closest to guessing the total miles for the day, I would buy them a beer. Chuck was the closest.

We travelled a total of 299.8 miles today. We went from California, into Nevada and back into California. With all this travelling, I found that we were only 28 miles from our start at the Best Western in Auburn, CA. It was a great day!