Lake Tahoe, a leaky tire and a fish out of water

Mazzy tubing Lake Tahoe

It's great to be in sync with friends when traveling.  And I'm not talking about a planned vacation, or connecting itineraries in advance.  I'm talking straight up, "wait, you're in the same random city as me right now...?"  This has happened to me over and over since I can remember.  Vegas, Catalina Island, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle.  Yes, those kinda' make sense. But how about St. Kilda (Australia) - OK, this one was sort of planned, but..., Boston, Marthas Vineyard, Tahiti, Brisbane, London, New York, Miami, Lisbon (Portugal) and Kaanapali (Hawaii), to name a few! Crap.  My dad would be totally annoyed that I just said, "to name a few."  Because I just named a few...  Don't worry, he's a retired English and Journalism teacher, so let me rephrase that.  To name a few that I can think of off the top of my head.  Because there's more.  I just can't remember them now! ;)

Donaldson + Gutierrez in Maui 2018

Now back to my point.  Since we've been in sync while traveling before, it was no surprise to me the my dear friends Max and Caroline Gutierrez were in Lake Tahoe at the same time we were passing through.  After all, we randomly hooked up with them in Maui two summers ago.  They were there at the end of their trip at the same time we were just beginning our trip!  It's always great to see friends from inside your bubble, outside your bubble!

After not being able to find a place to stay in Lake Tahoe due to the fact that we were going into a weekend, (It's harder to book campsites on weekends than it is during the week - like all accommodations everywhere...) I sent a Hail Mary out, in the form of a txt message of course, to see if we could possibly park Rolling Thunder by their family's vacation home.  Turns out that they were actually in Lake Tahoe, and said we should come stay with them!  I told Max, "All we need is a driveway, and we're good to go!"  To which he replied, "Dude. We're heading to the lake at noon, so hurry up!"

Snowflower Campground

Our wilderness overnight at the Snowflower RV Resort was probably one of my favorite stops on our trip.  Because we were so far from the other campsites, it really felt like we were in our own little wilderness hideaway. Peaceful. Quiet.  When I woke up, I took the puppy on a hike.  We were pretty high up, so the view of the trees below was pretty great!  Trees for as far as the eyes could see.  And you might think that I would be sick of trees at this point?  Not a chance. I'm absolutely loving it!

Latte in the wilderness

Back at Rolling Thunder, I made myself a coffee.  I don't think I have explained this yet, but in order to keep the noise down when I grind the coffee beans (I know, I know.  Yes, I brought my coffee grinder), I literally put two pillows around the grinder, and squeeze before hitting the grind button.  You'd be surprised of how much it cuts down the noise!  Neither kid has woken up to the grinder the whole trip so far!

I finished my coffee while enjoying my view from the cafe table window, and then began to pack up. As I finished my outside duties, I noticed that the rear tire was low again.  I will definitely need to take it in to be fixed, as the slow leak was getting worse.  Because we had cell service... I did a Google search for tire repair, and a place come up that was only 15 minutes away.  Even though it was Saturday, Google said they were open, but when I called I got a voice mail.  I continued searching and about five minutes later, I received a call back.  It was the owner of the tire repair service.  He said they were closed, but gave me the number to a garage that was about 20 minutes away, and on the way to Lake Tahoe.  He said to call and ask for Shamu.  Not joking!

Slow leak in our outer rear tire

Shamu was a big fella', for sure, so I did not ask him why he was nicknamed Shamu when we pulled up at his garage that was just off Interstate 80.  We arrived just around closing time (1pm), and I could tell he wasn't interested in diving into one last tire for the day.  He did charge me $10 to to check the tire, and put air in it, only to tell me that it was the stem, and not a nail.  Great! But, because he only works on truck tires, he did not have the proper stem to fix it.  He recommended another place in the opposite direction that was open on Saturdays.  Oh, and did I mention that I had to borrow $10 from my daughter because I only had a big bill and didn't want to ask Shamu for change...  Mazzy was so adamant about me paying her back that she wanted me to go to the Subway restaurant next door to get change so I could pay her back right away.  Come to think of it, I still owe her that $10... ;)

So back down the mountain we went to Plaza Tire and Auto Service in Colfax CA.  It was about a 50 minute drive.  I told them what Shamu had said about the stem, and after a little investigating, they came to the same conclusion.  But, all of their jacks were being used, so I said, why don't I just jack up the rear end using the hydraulic levelers?  They loved the idea.  I know I have mentioned how cool the levelers are earlier in this blog, but I'm going to say it again...  These levelers are pretty great!  I only wish I had taken a picture of the leveler in action.  Next time.

Another phenomena that seems to happen to me whenever I travel are those "small world" moments.  The young woman who was working behind the counter at Plaza Tire said she used to live in Venice, and had worked at Arbor Skateboards.  Wait, I told her.  I'm friends with the owner, Bob Carlson!  She said it was the best job she had ever had, and the Bob was an awesome boss!  I sent Bob a text and he replied to say hi, and that Rachel was the best.  She had moved back up this way, as this is where she grew up, but said she really missed Venice.

Donner Pass

We were back on the road in about 45 minutes.  Max said they were out on Lake Tahoe in their new speedboat, so to come straight to the lake.  As we drove back up over Donner pass, I told the story of  the Donner Party as I remembered it from my dad.  I told them that the Donner Party was a group of settlers who were moving West from the Midwest around the mid 1800s.  As they cut through the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter, they got snowed in.  Many of the settlers died, and if I remember correctly, some of the settlers who survived did so by eating those who had died.  The story still freaks me out to this day.   Side note: When I was backpacking through Australia in my 20s, there was a chain of fast food restaurants called Donner Kababs.  I also saw the play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, when I was in London as a kid.  Put two and two together, and there was no way I could ever eat at a place called Donner Kabob.  Ever.

Jasper's first boat ride

A mom and her ducklings

Lake Tahoe is a deep, blue mountain lake.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  With a depth of 1,645 feet it's the second deepest lake in the United States.

I was surprised to find parking within a block from the lake.  Although, I guess it was late in the day by this time.  Around 5pm I think.  Carolyn was just getting down to Kings Beach at the same time as us.  She had their youngest son, Miles, and a large pizza in hand.  Max and Maxie, their oldest, was already on the boat, that was mored about 50 feet from the shore.  For $5, there was a kid in a dingy who would take you out to the boats that are mored off Kings Beach so that you don't have to swim to your boat.  That's a good thing, otherwise I don't think the pizza would have survived...

Ready for round #3 on the inner tube

The kids had a blast getting towed on the large inner tube behind the boat.   The pizza was a hit as well.  I myself enjoyed the first adult conversations I had had in a week...  And the sunset was absolutely perfect!  I love Lake Tahoe!

Day 8 – August 1, 2020  

Start: Emigrant Gap CA   

Destination: Lake Tahoe CA 

Where we stayed: The Gutierrez Family Driveway

Mileage: 85 miles