Another cold night...28*F under clear sky; we are over 4000 feet after all! The sun was up by 7:30 am and it warmed up quickly. First thing this morning, I washed the jeep; it was filthy from road grime. While at it, I also washed the front of BEAVER. Once that chore was done, we hopped in the jeep and drove to Hwy 50 and Lake Tahoe. We climbed to 7200 feet at Spooner summit then back down to a manageable 6500 at South Lake Tahoe on the California side. Very beautiful and quaint town; it reminded us a mixture of Whistler, Jasper and Banff all combine together and just as expensive. There were two ski hills that we could see but I am sure there is more. We walked around, shopped and had lunch then went around the Lake. We drove to Emerald Bay where an eccentric lady built a castle but we didn’t go down to see it. Very beautiful place! We continued on to Tahoe City on the north side of the lake, lots of big fir and pine trees. Then back down to Hwy 50 and Carson City. I have to admit that however nice Tahoe was, it was not my kind of place to hang out, way too expensive for starter! We drove back to our site but first we stopped at Walmart to get some groceries then TRADER JOE for some wine. We got 6 bottles @ $3 each. I just get angry when I think how expensive wine is at home!!!
It was very warm and sunny today, even up there at Lake Tahoe. Tomorrow we head out again. The forecast is for rain/snow for Monday...time to leave!! I made reservations for Desert Hot Springs and Yuma (Nov 1 to ??) before heading for San Felipe, Baja.
Val cooked chicken breast and small potatoes in the convection oven; I think she is finally getting to understand it and felt very good about the meal; it was delicious!
I was up by 7 am under clear sky and 24*F. I find it amazing that the water hoses haven’t frozen. The clubhouse was offering free breakfast this morning so we took advantage of it and also fuelled while here at $3.89/gal. Pretty good prices! We headed south on 395 by 10 am and were soon climbing after driving through a scenic Gorge. We went over three passes well over 7500 feet and only one of them did we see snow beside the highway. The first one was “Devil’s Gate” at 7519 ft, the second; “Conway Pass” at 8138 feet, the third was “Deadman Summit” at 8041 ft and the last one, “Sherwin Summit” at 7000 ft. Most of our driving was above 5000 feet so it was easy climbing for us.
I was glad to be driving south as the north-bound climbs were very steep as opposed to a slow climb southbound. The scenery was absolutely AWESOME; we were driving along the Sierra Nevada Mountains and came close to Yosemite National Park although not quite near enough. Some of the views were absolutely incredible and breathtaking. We went through some quaint little villages and stopped for lunch at a roadside rest area. Before reaching Bishop, we went from 7200 feet down to just over 4000 ft.
We drove through Bishop and decided to stop here for the night. We are camped at BROWN’S CAMPGROUND, a really neat and funky place (check out the pictures in our PICASA LINK). We paid $28 for a pull-through and full hook-ups. We went into town with the jeep and got some wine, beer and a couple things for dinner. We arrived here at 2:30 PM. Now we are having HH under a balmy 75*F. Tacos for dinner.
We drove 166 miles in 3
hrs and 25 minutes @ an average 48 MPH
N 37* 20.766’W 118* 23.931’
ALT: 4124 Ft
It was a balmy 41*F this morning...sure beats those mid 20’s! I took a couple pictures while walking Tucker who is feeling much better since we gave him meds. I really hate to see him suffer; those arthritis on his hind legs are really giving trouble!
We
left at 9:20 am and got back on 395 South.
We slowly but ever slowly went down in altitude. We still follow the Sierra Nevada which is
quite spectacular and scenic. We had 4
lanes highway most of the way. We
finally arrived at the intersection of 395 and 58 after going over one more
pass which took us over 4000 feet. We
had lunch here, what a busy intersection!
Hwy 58 takes you west to Bakersfield or east to I-40. We drove a while then finally reached I-15
and headed for our final destination on this leg, Desert Hot Springs! We turned off on 210 then finally I-10 East. We stopped at MORONGO for fuel at $3.89 which
was actually cheaper then gas. Morongo
is First Nation station and casino, hence the cheap prices. There was a line-up when we got here. We arrived at Catalina RV Resort, an RPI
member, registered and are set up in site 228.
So
this completes another milestone for us.
We have driven Hwy 395 from Canada to California; another thing off our
bucket list. We drove 2009 miles to get
here and used 203.7 gallons of fuel for an average 9 mpg. I am quite happy with that and on top of it
all, Our BEAVER performed perfectly and without an itch. The other thing to celebrate is that we have
now done a complete circle from the time we purchased it to its return to Palm
Spring area! Time for happy hour!!!! It is a balmy 85*F (28*C).
We drove 308 miles in 6
hrs at an average 52 MPH
N 33* 54.768’W 116* 26.280
Alt: 955 ft
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