\

Wanderung 13

Any Which Way But Loose:

Meandering Many Miles in Multitudinous Mechanisms

September 2006

Friday, September 22nd - Ridge Road and the West Side of the Sierra Nevada, California.

After another solid night's sleep, we were ready to see a bit more of California with Chris acting as our official tour guide and chauffeur. Driving north out of Los Angeles we saw smoke in the mountains where wildfires were raging.

We turned off now and then to tour sections of old Ridge Road as we crossed the coastal mountain range. The Ridge Road was the first paved road connecting the northern and southern parts of California, and was quite an engineering achievement in the early 1900s. Chris said it was credited with holding the state together politically when it could have split in two. The remnants of the concrete roadway are still there if you know where to look, and Chris had made multiple trips into the area tracking down pieces of the old road, so he definitely knew where to look.

We continued northwest across the Sierra Nevada Mountains through a beautiful narrow gorge with a swift mountain stream dancing through it. Despite the small size of the stream, it was generating hydroelectric power from a small dam midway up the gorge. The road twisted and turned this way and that as we wound through the mountains, and I was awfully glad Chris was at the wheel as I could enjoy the scenery without the usual stress of driving.

Turning north in the valley on the other side of the Sierra Nevada, we drove past an old Lava Cone and other signs of volcanic activity. On the other side were the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

We reached Bishop as the sun went down. We had intended to stay at Bishop that night having all figured that since it was no longer the holiday season, rooms would be relatively easy to find. Boy were we all wrong! We failed to find a hotel with a vacancy anywhere in the area of Bishop, but as some sort of a consolation prize we did find a Paiute Indian Casino that had reasonably good food for dinner at a reasonable price. It was, however, a curious ambiance for a meal with the constant clatter and flash of the gambling machines in the background and a décor of red walls and black columns supporting the roof (Chris called it, "Modern Brothel").

Finally in desperation we called a Carson City, Nevada, Super 8 for a room and drove there that night since the alternative was the three of us trying to sleep in one Toyota Cressida. It was a long, tough night drive for Chris and rather frustrating for all of us since we knew we were passing through some incredibly scenic territory in the dark. We finally arrived in Carson City shortly before midnight, paid the outrageous sum of $168 per room for the night, and collapsed into bed.

Copyright 2006 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog
Map
September 2006
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Epilog

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.