29th September 2007, 01:50
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| Team-BHP Support   | California cruisin... Part IV - In the Sierras! First of all you must be wondering where is Part III. Well Part III happened and we went to LA, but it was more of a Universal studio visit rather than a road trip.So I am bit lazy to write about it, maybe I will put it in a Pictravelogue! Anyways, on the last weekend, it was time for some mountains after all the ocean. So multiple destinations were considered, like lake shasta, Tahoe, Yosemite etc., Finally it was decided that Tahoe its going to be. Lake tahoe is one of the largest lakes in the US, and I would call it a mini sea. The drive is around 4hrs one way with lots of driving around the lake. We tried to get out early, but it was only around 8:30 we got at Avis car rental. MY foolishness to take priceline for car rental had got me stuck with avis. You don't actually save much money, its more of an illusion of money saving. So the avis guy grudgingly offered me a compact instead of a subcompact for free. So instead of the Aveo, I had a cobalt, which is quite a nice little car with decent power(143 horses) and not much weight. Meanwhile it started raining, and heavily so. The freeway's were slow and by the time we reached the non freeway section of US-50, it was actually treacherous terrain! I wan't aware tha US-80 is a better road than 50, so we decided to hit south lake tahoe, do a loop from left side and come back to south lake tahoe and head back on 50. If I had know that 80 is so much better, we would have done a loop starting from north lake tahoe! Anyways we reach to find out that most water activities are stopped due to rain and cold. So all that was left was to do the drive! And what a drive it was. The views were breathtaking   The drive was gooood!  Decided to do some walking by the beach. It was 40 F and thats a little too cold. this meant all the boats were in  We did some more driving  Braved the icy winds  Saw great views    On the nevada side there were so many cops, with their Radars always on. And very soon had to shut down the detector, or risk returning deaf. We decided to drive on the mount rose highway to catch some fresh snow   Sadly, its not really snow season, so we just braved 34F without the snowfall. Little snow here! In winter this road can become impassable  This is the ride   The drive back was lovely too  Gravity can turn anything into a sportscar  It was dark when we started back. It was drizzling. Narrow road, and glare from headlghts. After so long I was reminded of driving in India  My eyes were hurting, luckily found a convoy. Soon US-50 became a freeway, i.e. a nice divided road and I could push some. That at one point the road rose, and immediately after the crest it was smooth straight downhill, with nothing in site. The speedo needle was in late 60s and my right foot almost floored it. But call it hindsight or instinct or keen night vision, I saw something parked on the side far way. Now who could be parked without lights? The RD was silent and the road was wide, but I just tapped the brakes to maintain speed and not exceed the late sixties range, and 2 seconds later the RD goes beserk, Ka band full strength. The cop was sneaky. He had is radar off and when I was at a stretch when most people are crossing 90 he turned his Radar on! So if any of you planning to go to Arnie's town or whereabouts, be careful, very very careful! It looks the entire california highway patrol sits in Sacramento! After that it was return via I-5, pretty uneventful, thankfully So thats all folks, just one more travelogue to go now  The cockpit Thats not starbucks by the way  |
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29th September 2007, 02:09
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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29th September 2007, 02:21
| #3 |
| Team-BHP Support | Few days more here. Actually LA can be called a travelogue, since we drove there, but it was just the destination which is important not a travelogue. As for the rainbow, its all to do with luck. And speaking of which, here is a pic of our pot of gold We put in 1$ and 5 came out   |
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