Wrap up to Tahoe visit…

Had a great time working for the FS at Lake Tahoe, but the 5 weeks were coming to a close. Still had snow in the hills and a chill in the evening air but the days were sunny and warm.

Did a drive around to check out the local golf courses. This is on US-50 just a few miles south from the ‘Y’. There was another course further on. Both very nice, and rather expensive. And both with evidence of the very wet and brutal winter they’d had here. I would have played a round but I was still looking for golf shoes and a glove that I like.

Later on I went to downtown Stateline and just a couple blocks from city center is a public golf course owned by the city that I wanted to check out. I’d decided to go ahead and play there despite not having the shoes or glove. But it was closed ! (mid June) because the poor winter weather had saturated the ground so the trees were still unstable, there was standing water here and there on the course, etc.. That made me sad. Oh, well, some other time.

While driving around looking at golf courses, happened upon this public park on one of the back roads outside of town. It started out as a reclamation project because there use to be a wood mill on the property but they finished that, then decided to create a pond for kids to learn fishing. And that’s what it is now. A children only fishing pond. Kinda neat.  Couple nights later, decided I wanted a filet mignon for dinner so rode my bike the 2 miles over to the Beacon Bar & Grill. It’s a pretty nice place. Very popular too.

Nice crowd tonight. And my filet arrived. But…it’s not a filet mignon. It’s a cheap cut of some kind. But it smelled good, I couldn’t find my waitress so I nibbled a bite. Soooo good. Still, not a filet mignon. Grisel isn’t part of a filet mignon, neither is a big glob of fat. Eventually, because of the long wait for the waitress, I ate more than half of it. That’s when the waitress showed up, it was fairly busy so couldn’t fault her. I had the feeling she knew about it not being the right cut of meat, but the price was still the high price you’d expect for a filet mignon, and she chided me about not complaining earlier. I believe because she wanted to take a steak back to the kitchen simply because it’s not the right cut as advertized in the menu, most of the staff probably knows it, and they’d like it to be fixed for the customers. It’s not right to charge $10 more for a high quality cut, and then substitute a poorer quality cut.  Eventually, she comp’ed this desert, and 2 of my beers, so I got my moneys worth. I had a nibble of the desert for the next four nights. Meanwhile, there was one of the waitstaff working on changing a fluorescent tube nearby and he leaned over and said, “It’s a New York steak”, and goes back to work. So some of the waitstaff know that the steak they are charging $39 for and calling a Filet Mignon, isn’t. I sort of planned on going back for another steak before the work session at Tallac ended but I didn’t make it.

A couple days later we had the session closing party. They thank everyone and hand out gifts…

But they always have the end of session party a few days early, so the next day, headed 2 miles down to the nearby yearly renaissance fair. I just went to get pics, I have no desire to pay money for basically nothing. Wandering around just looking at people all dressed up in period outfits, or browsing the trinket stalls, doesn’t do much for me.

People get all dressed up for these things…like cosplayers, actually saw some of those here. The fair itself is nothing more than people in stalls selling stuff. Regular stuff you’d find anywhere else on the planet. Food, beer, and trinkets. Oh, but they are dressed up! Nah. I’ll get my fun elsewhere. Would have wandered through the place except they want $15 for that privilege. $5 less than 10 years ago, but still.  

And after that I took a stroll along the shoreline. This view is close to the Tallac RV park where I’m staying and I’ve been in this exact spot numerous times, but I never get bored with it. I’m on the dock at the Valhalla estate.  A look back at the Beacon Bar & Grill at the Richardson Resort.  Check out how clear the water is… The garden at the Pope estate is looking very nice. And soon it was the day to leave. One of my blog readers invited me to visit him and his family at the Campground by the Lake in So. Lake Tahoe for a day or two and I accepted. Since the drive was going to be so short, I hung around the Tallac RV park as long as I could. Took a few goodbye pictures. In this first picture, out my front windows, off in that direction 1300 feet (400 meters) is the Baldwin Estate.

Took a walk on the road leading out of the RV park to make sure there wouldn’t be any surprises as I tried to drive out.Took this shot when I came back from that stroll, that’s my car staged back there so when I back up the RV onto that road, it’s an easy matter to hook up.  I wasn’t the only RV left in this park, but close to it. Most of the other volunteers are over in the Baldwin park. There’s no Wifi there so I prefer this park. Here I can pick up my own Wifi system…which I installed shortly after I arrived and which I’ve now removed.

After leaving, drove the 5 miles to the ‘Y’ in South Lake Tahoe and parked in the BevMo parking lot for a couple three hours waiting for it to be check in time at the Campground. When I got there, Tom tells me he’d already paid for my spot. He tells me he did that because of all the people I help with my RV repair blog. Well, isn’t that nice? Thank you very much, Tom.
Lot’s of trees at this park. And we’re just across the street, maybe 100 yards, from the Lake.Lots of campers hidden around here. And then Tom and his son join me for a nice bike ride around the area. This is the main highway in South Tahoe, it’s often very crowded. I just realized I haven’t mentioned that I was driving around So. Lake Tahoe a couple weeks ago and spotted a bunch of bikes outside a Thrift store. Stopped in, and found just the bike I was looking for, 21 speed, in good condition, comfortable seat, and full suspension. After having the bike guy change the plastic pedals for metal, paid $78 and now I have a bike again. Remember my old bike was stolen in Oregon back in August of ’16. Here it was 10 months later before I got one. I had been looking too, just didn’t find what I wanted at the price I was willing to pay until Tahoe. Across the street is a public park.

And some boats for rent. Tom & Son. Lots of things to see around Tahoe. And very refreshing to use the bike to visit along the shoreline. We all head back to the RV park after a several mile ride, and I join Tom, wife, and son for dinner. Afterwards, ask 4 members of the RV park staff about why I could get the parks Wifi signal but cannot connect to the internet. Find out that they have no idea how Wifi is suppose to be set up. One of the staff eventually tell me that they don’t even have Wifi there. Even though they are broadcasting a nice strong SSID. Sigh. The nearby library has it though so I ride over there with my android and get my surfing done.

The next morning, I was determined to take a ride on the gondola I’d mentioned in an earlier post. Invited Tom & family to come along but the $68 per person seemed a bit steep to them and they declined. But I headed downtown, spent 20 minutes trying to find somewhere to park, do find a parking lot eventually. Walk over to the gondola, and it is closed to riders, damnit. They’re not  taking passengers , but the gondolas are running. I forget why, but it was disappointing. Had considered staying another night there in Tahoe but there was really no reason too, so since it was still early enough to make it to Reno, even if I stop at Virginia City which I was considering, I went ahead and said goodbye to Tom and family and headed on out.

And that’s where I’ll pick it up next time, heading towards Reno.

Thanks for visiting!