Nevada: September 20, 2012

Bill and I had breakfast with Dianne and then got on the motorcycle and went to pick up Dennis, Bill's riding buddy who had stayed at a different hotel.  I don't often ride on the back, but you only can take so much stuff on a bike trip! I hauled that helmet through four airports yesterday and will have to carry it with me the rest of the trip... I am surely going to wear it and ride with Bill!

We went by and got Dennis and headed around Lake Tahoe in a clockwise direction. It is about 72 miles around. There were steep grades and switchbacks in the first 15 miles, making me a little nervous about riding it on my bike tomorrow.... at one hairpin curve we came upon 3 cyclists who were spread out across the whole lane! We talked to them when we saw them at the scenic lookout. They too are on a great adventure--here are Stewart, Mari and Kathy.

We continued around the lake, stopping wherever we saw something interesting or scenic.  It is a beautiful place! There are a lot of ski areas here. Fortunately we are at the point between summer and ski season so the traffic was not too bad. We are staying right at the state line, so we crossed between California and Nevada several times in the past 2 days. This sign was about halfway around the lake.

There were signs warning us of falling rocks and steep grades throughout our ride.

The water in Lake Tahoe is famously clear--it is said that you can see clearly down to about 70 feet!

After our ride around the lake we had lunch with Dianne and then Dennis returned to his place. Dianne's s cousins Joni, Lehua, and Roz arrived and we had cocktail hour in their room and then all went out to dinner at a local brewery.  After dinner Dianne's son Damon arrived from San Francisco.

Near our hotel we saw this monument to the Pony Express. Apparently we will be seeing more of these along our bike route, which roughly follows the old Pony Express route.