Snowmobiles Rock!

Up early on our first morning in South Lake Tahoe California, we drove just a few miles to Lake Tahoe Adventures and paid money, signed forms, fitted helmets, and grabbed goggles for our snowmobile tour.
Other groups soon arrived, and before long we loaded up the bus and hit the road for Hope Valley in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which is the biggest in the USA outside Alaska.

I only brought my phone for pics because I didn't want to deal with anything bigger--my cameras are very large and heavy. In hindsight, adding Sylvia's Sony T70 would have been the smartest move, giving me a zoom lens and more pixels for printing. Oh well...what I got certainly tells the story, and the quality is better than I expected.

The bus stopped here while the gate to Hope Valley is opened:


So far sightings of snow are confined to small patches in the shade, with almost none at lower elevations. I'm a little concerned at this point as we've been driving uphill for awhile.
Then we drove uphill a bunch more, and conditions start to look better.

We meet Danny, our instructor/guide, and learn about our machines.
He proves to be funny, quick-witted, and super nice.
All four of my girls have a crush on him already, and to be honest I'm a bit smitten myself since he's one of the few men I've ever met who might actually be cooler and more interesting than me.
After about five minutes of instruction we're ready for a quick run up the road so Danny can get a feel for our abilities and establish a logical order so we'd have the best chance of staying together without anyone running up someone else's rear.
At this point we've stopped for a quick shuffle of the lineup, a peptalk, and a little more instruction:

After running on some recently added snow and a few bare patches of asphalt the trail ahead is looking much better.

Time to open them up and start having fun!
Wish I had some action shots.

This first leg of the tour was a blur for me due to extreme concentration on mastering the snowmobile, but the beauty of our surroundings still gets through as we blast up steep mountain roads covered in snow. After I don't know how long, we finally come to the first break in a most scenic location:


Danny gets the photo credit on both of these, with style points for dropping onto his side and shooting this next one from the ground like some kind of pro-with-a-phonecam:

(I had to rotate them 180* in Photoshop cuz he had my phone upside-down--not so cool now, are ya?)

We've reached a pretty serious elevation by now, and this is the view ahead:

I made yellow snow behind the trees on the right. Been over 30 years since I've done that.

Looking back from here, this caught my eye:

Obviously the snow is freaking DEEP up here!
And these signs are 3 feet taller than the ones here in Texas.



From the next rest stop:








Sylvia and I have agreed that we want to play like this again.
Texas being what it is, probably jet-skies and ATVs are next.

Day 1: Southwest To Tahoe

A short layover in Las Vegas and soon we were getting picked up at Reno Airport and on our way over the mountains to Lake Tahoe.




Pulled over at a scenic overlook.


The lake with some showers forming.
We're in California--a first for me.
Hell, Nevada was a first, too.
And the full-on TSA trip.


More to come...

Getting Close....

...to departure.

Our advance team is in place getting everything squared away for our arrival, and posted some pics to Facebook:

Don't know if it's supposed to snow in the next week--sure hope so!

This is the house we're renting:

I know--a total dump, right?


Hopefully I'll have stuff to blog every day this week, and for a month afterwards.

Got my laptop all squared away, with card readers tested and Photoshop and other editing programs installed and tested.
I had Buz, my best friend and computer expert, take over this machine by remote control last night. Spent several hours watching stuff get deleted, installed, settings changed, boxes checked or unchecked, etc as he poked into every nook and cranny. There's a ton of stuff you can do to make Windows run faster and be more stable, and Buz knows all the tricks.
He's also a damn fine bass player.

It's bizarre watching your computer being operated by someone 1000 miles away!!!
Especially at lightning speed by an expert--I couldn't keep track of what was being done most of the time.
(BTW, if anyone could use a good tech, his rates are reasonable and he's an honest and decent man who could use the work. Hit me up for contact info.)


Haven't flown since we had to go to Arlington National Cemetery in 2004.
Scanner or fondle?
Discuss.

Testing 1 2 3

Hopefully the photo shows up, and these words are in Texican English.














Good, the system works.
Never blogged from the kitchen before.
It's kinda cool.

Why blog from the kitchen?
Because that means I can also blog from just about anywhere.
Like for example...a snow-covered mountain on the California/Nevada border with a well-know lake below.


Just bought a pretty nice Dell laptop in a used computer shop. A good deal was made.
Been a lot of fun loading programs, changing settings, and just getting used to the foreign form factor.
Never really liked notebooks, but figured I really need one if I'm going to stay connected (and sane) on our upcoming vacation. Movies on the plane and elsewhere, editing/storing/posting photos, blogging, surfing, FB and forums, listening to new Televators mixes--I always missed my PC on past vacations, and while Sylvia's Samsung tablet is awesome for entertainment and internettage, for my photography I need more horsepower and connection options.

Just discovered that my "new" machine's card reader is a little wonky--the Memory Stick wouldn't stay inserted but holding it in place worked fine.
I was going to have to bring a card reader anyway for Compact Flash--what's one more?

And I also learned a few minutes ago that I need to install Photoshop because IrfanView isn't going to cut it, especially with the way laptop monitors are so sensitive to viewing angle. Need to stay with what I know, so I can trust in the numbers to get predictable results.

Of course this is just a small part of our VacaPrep.
Borrowing snowpants and coats, ordering long underwears and boots online, choosing the perfect hats, I'm worn out from so much shopping.
We found my boots at Academy.com for $10 w/free shipping (!!!) and my hat is worthy of a blog post all it's own--a major score.

Still need to assemble a good toolkit, because I'm going to be sharing a house with 4 loud drunk clumsy girls. Need to keep them out of trouble and repair as much damage as possible. Wish me luck. (Oh yeah--need to buy new earplugs).



Besides a weekend on the Guadalupe last March, this is my first serious vacation in many years and I haven't flown anywhere since 2004. As the departure gets closer (and more "real") I'm starting to get excited.
The main thing for me will be the photo-ops, and if nothing major goes wrong I'll be sharing some of the results on a daily basis right here on Views of Texas.

Hiding Out

We took a mini-vacation to the Hill Country this week, and it was great.
Not counting Syl's trips to Chicago, Florida, Cancun, and that cruise, we haven't been anywhere in more years than I can pin down.
Hmmm...


Back in December she found a good deal on Living Social for some cabins on the Guadalupe River, specifically the Horseshoe Bend just downstream from Canyon Dam.
Obviously not during peak times when they would be sold out anyway, but that's fine with us.
Ever taken a romantic walk on the beach while getting whipped by 30 mph/30 degree F winds plus sleet? That's how we roll.


The Hideout cabins are fairly new and in excellent condition, even right after spring break.



Getting down to the river and back up meant lots of stairs, and to keep with the natural stone decor we're talking random sizes and shapes so you really had to watch your step.
My thighs aren't as sore as expected, though.



The back porch was pretty rocking, with lots of furniture, ceiling fans, and a terrific view. Plus a wifi network antenna that never quite managed to connect us with the outside world.
(We were also in a rare weak zone for 3G and talk service, so our phone's only activity besides gaming was charging--for some reason the batteries were dying really fast, probably because they spent all their time and energy trying to connect to the various networks).



Gas fireplace was much appreciated. We were in their best cabins, which had central AC instead of window units. Didn't feel one bit guilty cranking up the cold air to compensate for a fire.



The giant tub was a thing of beauty, and the bathroom was enormous and posh.
My new favorite, because it was super-deluxe without going over the top.

There was even a urinal--no shit!
(I never bothered to use it, but Syl asked about the drunk-girls-in-bars techniques I have witnessed, so she may have given it a try).

No stove, but a nice fridge and microwave plus coffee machine which was all we really needed.
A crappy futon instead of a comfy couch was probably our main complaint. I'm thinking now that we should have just pulled some pieces off the porch since they were better.

I never looked at the available pictures online and didn't know much beyond "cabin" and what my past experiences suggested that meant.
I was prepared for an adventure and packed accordingly, so what we found was a very pleasant surprise to me and surpassed her expectations, too.
It was cozy and pretty and cheap, and we'll probably go back.



To be continued...