We've stayed longer in Palm Springs than we usually do, thinking that if we put off returning to Lake Tahoe until May 13th or so, perhaps the fears over Coronavirus would dwindle. We forgot the fact that the temperature would be rising in the south. As it continued rising into the 100's, my husband suggested that we leave the next day. Unfortunately, I had ordered a few things online, and worried whether they would be properly forwarded to us without a huge charge. So we waited, continuing to be lazy about decluttering and organizing and packing for our six months up north. Finally! The most important items were delivered and the departure date was set for two days later. The temp had risen to 104 degrees, and even though it was hard to do any work outside, most of our packing and straightening was done indoors and we put all three of our little air conditioners to work along with the swamp cooler! It became mandatory that we get our act together.
The morning we left, April 30th, friends dropped by, all donning their masks, and standing the prescribed 6 feet away, to say good-bye, give us pretend hugs from a distance, and snacks to eat on the way. I kept bringing out bags and small boxes, and our suitcases, as everyone marveled at how it might all fit in to the Prius. "Doug always makes it work. He's the Master Packer!", I said, "And besides, this year we've sort of added on a room!" I pointed to the top of the car where sat our new Roof Bag, a roof-top carrier that zips open and is made of something like raft material.
"This is one reason I wasn't worried about fitting in her old guitar this time", he said. "And all my craft supplies that I insist on traveling back and forth with us", I added. Doug rolled his eyes and shrugged. "It'll all fit fine", he said.
By 10:15, we entered our destination into MapQuest on the iPhone, and we left town, already munching on some yummy oatmeal cookies that our friend had baked for us the night before. We vowed that we would make the 9 hour trip in one day, and not dawdle, taking turns with the driving. Bagels and cream cheese, turkey sandwiches, and fruit had been packed for meals on the way, and lots of water that was in refillable bottles, would make it so we wouldn't have to stop except to pee.
The quickest route is to go right up Hwy. 395. The beginning of the route would be on I-10, past the windmills and of course heavy winds. It was the first test of our roof-top carrier, and it endured it okay, except for scooting back a little closer to the antenna. Doug tightened the straps a little more, and there was no more problem. I still tried to not drive like a speed demon, just to make sure.
About 3 hours later, for a bathroom break, we stopped at a kind of funky truck-stop, and we wore our gloves and masks, and felt we should buy a bottle of iced tea and some Cornnuts, just to pay for the use of the bathroom. Our bottle of hand sanitizer was used liberally when we got back out to the car. It's so strange to have to always be thinking about ways of being careful!
Our radio wasn't picking up much of anything, so we listened to a Trevor Noah podcast, and a little bit of a book on Audible and then some of Blossom Dearie radio station on Pandora, as we glided by old lava flows and snow-covered mountains on our left in the Sierras. Near Mammoth Lakes, we hit a rest stop that was thankfully open. The air was crisp and cool, and I took the chance to stick my nose near the bark of a Ponderosa pine to smell the aroma of butterscotch. "We're almost there", Doug said, "It'll only be another hour and a half!" That sounded pretty long to me, since it was my turn to drive again, but once we turned up Kingsbury Grade, I knew we only had another half hour.
As we drove through town, in Stateline, Nevada, the casinos were closed, and our favorite little one, Lakeside Inn, that we like for their food, gave up the ghost last month and shut down for good. So sad. Everyone's wondering if businesses can make a comeback. It'll be in a different way for sure.
We turned in to our condo area, and carried a couple of things in with us. The condo is rented out usually in the summer, so when we walk in the door, it's all nice and clean, as if we are renters ourselves. We turned on the heater and our electric fireplace, and after getting a few of the more valuable things from the car, Doug poured us each a nice drink and we sat, marveling happily that we had the opportunity to live in two such wonderful places.
Still giddy in the morning, I fed my squirrels and birds their usual seeds and nuts and filled their blue glass water bowl. They seemed really happy that we had returned. Our paper had been delivered out near the car. Everything was falling back in to place and we had breakfast from things we had brought up.
Then it was time for a walk around our condo property. We've been planting bulbs all over the place, about 1000 in the last 3 years, and we were anxious to see all the tulips and daffodils that have sprouted up.
While we were strolling around, our phone rang in my pocket, and I saw that it was our dentist's office calling. I thought, this is really strange, since they had already canceled Doug's appointment for cleaning, and I didn't think they would be opening their office yet.
I handed the phone to Doug, and the secretary told him that she had just received a call from someone who had found his wallet in the men's room at the rest stop we had stopped at near Mammoth Lakes! They tried different ways to figure out how to contact us, finally calling the number on the dental appointment card that Doug had saved in his wallet. She gave us their phone number to call them so it could be sent to us.
Oh my gosh! Doug had had trouble finding it this morning, and his next plan was to look under the bed when we went back home! Right away, we called and got Dan and Teresa, the people who Doug said, "restored my faith in human nature!" They said Dan had found it right on the floor of the bathroom, with lots of money and checks in it. "We figured someone might be missing it," he said, so they went around asking folks in cars and trucks, to no avail.
It's funny. Doug had read somewhere, that we should keep some cash on hand, should the economy take a big downturn. I had asked him where he was going to keep it while we were traveling. He said, "I think my wallet is the safest place, don't you think?" I agreed, since our track record of putting things "in a really good place", hasn't panned out very well. We can't find most of those things.
So Dan and Teresa told us they were going to send the wallet to us, and call us with the tracking number, which they did the next day. It didn't come as soon as it was supposed to, so Dan called another time to tell us that he had been tracking the package too, and hoped it would be delivered soon. A couple of days later, the USPS website said it had been delivered, and we ran over to the post office. There was the missing wallet, all intact, accompanied by a nice card. We sent them one back, thanking them and enclosed a just reward for their honesty. Another few days later, Dan and Teresa called, thanking us back, and suggested that next time we are on our way back to Palm Springs, we should stop to see them. We both thought, "now these are some folks that we would like to meet!"
That was a nice, positive way to start our Tahoe summer. This season won't be the same though. Just as everywhere else, the pandemic has the hot tub empty and the pool closed. Most restaurants are only open for pick up, and there won't be the usual amount of tourists, since the hotels are closed, and if anyone rents out their place by AIRBNB, there will be a $1000. fine.
A guy was selling used bicycles out in front of his home the other day though, and I bought one for myself to toodle around the area. Not on roads though. I'm afraid of traffic.
The lake is looking beautiful, and will no doubt be less polluted this year, without all the people boating and going to the beach. Not that Lake Tahoe is very polluted. It's always been noted that one can see an object dropped to 70 feet. I guess this is an opportunity to keep it that way. The corona virus may be a terrible hit for human beings, but at the same time it should be a nice breather for the environment.
The morning we left, April 30th, friends dropped by, all donning their masks, and standing the prescribed 6 feet away, to say good-bye, give us pretend hugs from a distance, and snacks to eat on the way. I kept bringing out bags and small boxes, and our suitcases, as everyone marveled at how it might all fit in to the Prius. "Doug always makes it work. He's the Master Packer!", I said, "And besides, this year we've sort of added on a room!" I pointed to the top of the car where sat our new Roof Bag, a roof-top carrier that zips open and is made of something like raft material.
"This is one reason I wasn't worried about fitting in her old guitar this time", he said. "And all my craft supplies that I insist on traveling back and forth with us", I added. Doug rolled his eyes and shrugged. "It'll all fit fine", he said.
By 10:15, we entered our destination into MapQuest on the iPhone, and we left town, already munching on some yummy oatmeal cookies that our friend had baked for us the night before. We vowed that we would make the 9 hour trip in one day, and not dawdle, taking turns with the driving. Bagels and cream cheese, turkey sandwiches, and fruit had been packed for meals on the way, and lots of water that was in refillable bottles, would make it so we wouldn't have to stop except to pee.
The quickest route is to go right up Hwy. 395. The beginning of the route would be on I-10, past the windmills and of course heavy winds. It was the first test of our roof-top carrier, and it endured it okay, except for scooting back a little closer to the antenna. Doug tightened the straps a little more, and there was no more problem. I still tried to not drive like a speed demon, just to make sure.
About 3 hours later, for a bathroom break, we stopped at a kind of funky truck-stop, and we wore our gloves and masks, and felt we should buy a bottle of iced tea and some Cornnuts, just to pay for the use of the bathroom. Our bottle of hand sanitizer was used liberally when we got back out to the car. It's so strange to have to always be thinking about ways of being careful!
Our radio wasn't picking up much of anything, so we listened to a Trevor Noah podcast, and a little bit of a book on Audible and then some of Blossom Dearie radio station on Pandora, as we glided by old lava flows and snow-covered mountains on our left in the Sierras. Near Mammoth Lakes, we hit a rest stop that was thankfully open. The air was crisp and cool, and I took the chance to stick my nose near the bark of a Ponderosa pine to smell the aroma of butterscotch. "We're almost there", Doug said, "It'll only be another hour and a half!" That sounded pretty long to me, since it was my turn to drive again, but once we turned up Kingsbury Grade, I knew we only had another half hour.
As we drove through town, in Stateline, Nevada, the casinos were closed, and our favorite little one, Lakeside Inn, that we like for their food, gave up the ghost last month and shut down for good. So sad. Everyone's wondering if businesses can make a comeback. It'll be in a different way for sure.
We turned in to our condo area, and carried a couple of things in with us. The condo is rented out usually in the summer, so when we walk in the door, it's all nice and clean, as if we are renters ourselves. We turned on the heater and our electric fireplace, and after getting a few of the more valuable things from the car, Doug poured us each a nice drink and we sat, marveling happily that we had the opportunity to live in two such wonderful places.
Still giddy in the morning, I fed my squirrels and birds their usual seeds and nuts and filled their blue glass water bowl. They seemed really happy that we had returned. Our paper had been delivered out near the car. Everything was falling back in to place and we had breakfast from things we had brought up.
Then it was time for a walk around our condo property. We've been planting bulbs all over the place, about 1000 in the last 3 years, and we were anxious to see all the tulips and daffodils that have sprouted up.
I handed the phone to Doug, and the secretary told him that she had just received a call from someone who had found his wallet in the men's room at the rest stop we had stopped at near Mammoth Lakes! They tried different ways to figure out how to contact us, finally calling the number on the dental appointment card that Doug had saved in his wallet. She gave us their phone number to call them so it could be sent to us.
Oh my gosh! Doug had had trouble finding it this morning, and his next plan was to look under the bed when we went back home! Right away, we called and got Dan and Teresa, the people who Doug said, "restored my faith in human nature!" They said Dan had found it right on the floor of the bathroom, with lots of money and checks in it. "We figured someone might be missing it," he said, so they went around asking folks in cars and trucks, to no avail.
It's funny. Doug had read somewhere, that we should keep some cash on hand, should the economy take a big downturn. I had asked him where he was going to keep it while we were traveling. He said, "I think my wallet is the safest place, don't you think?" I agreed, since our track record of putting things "in a really good place", hasn't panned out very well. We can't find most of those things.
So Dan and Teresa told us they were going to send the wallet to us, and call us with the tracking number, which they did the next day. It didn't come as soon as it was supposed to, so Dan called another time to tell us that he had been tracking the package too, and hoped it would be delivered soon. A couple of days later, the USPS website said it had been delivered, and we ran over to the post office. There was the missing wallet, all intact, accompanied by a nice card. We sent them one back, thanking them and enclosed a just reward for their honesty. Another few days later, Dan and Teresa called, thanking us back, and suggested that next time we are on our way back to Palm Springs, we should stop to see them. We both thought, "now these are some folks that we would like to meet!"
That was a nice, positive way to start our Tahoe summer. This season won't be the same though. Just as everywhere else, the pandemic has the hot tub empty and the pool closed. Most restaurants are only open for pick up, and there won't be the usual amount of tourists, since the hotels are closed, and if anyone rents out their place by AIRBNB, there will be a $1000. fine.
A guy was selling used bicycles out in front of his home the other day though, and I bought one for myself to toodle around the area. Not on roads though. I'm afraid of traffic.
The lake is looking beautiful, and will no doubt be less polluted this year, without all the people boating and going to the beach. Not that Lake Tahoe is very polluted. It's always been noted that one can see an object dropped to 70 feet. I guess this is an opportunity to keep it that way. The corona virus may be a terrible hit for human beings, but at the same time it should be a nice breather for the environment.
Lucky you are!!
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