A Silly Grin In Dixon - #16

Thursday 19 April

We set off early this morning to avoid paying the bill.

No just testing to see if any of you are actually reading this or just skimming! Haha, I wouldn't blame you...

We did set off early though deciding to eat something perhaps an hour or two down the line. Beautiful morning and ride, lovely curves and gentle climbs. The impressive snow capped were looking amazing! Have I told you all how much I love mountains and deserts? We passed through Mammoth Lakes, Aspen Springs and sadly Lee Vinning, this was the turnoff for the Tioga Pass Rd which would have taken us through Yosemite. These are popular ski areas in the winter but the season is over and the snow is disappearing on all but the highest peaks. I tried not to think about missing Yosemite NP too much as we carried on up the 395 towards Reno & Carson City. We stopped at Mono Lake which is one of the Yosemite NP HQs, my bike shattering the peace and causing concerned looks from the elderly visitors. That is until I get off the bike bike and say 'gidday'!

Beautiful place, everything in these regions is millions of years old, you feel like a one season flea!

Onward. We rode into the old town of Bridgeport where we were going to stop for breakfast. We stopped at the Bridgeport Inn. I loved this town, real old charm. The food was good, (yes I went for another omelet that I failed to finish), and the hostess very friendly. She gave us lots of good advise about the route ahead and times etc. This Inn has a lot of history and Mark Twain stopped here. They named the room after him and it is rumoured to be haunted with a ghost called the white lady. I took some photos because it just was what Inns used to be like in the old days with rich carpet, old style curtains and a big pot belly for want of a better description.  The bar and saloon out front was real cool too.

If you know about these places you would build them into your itinerary but you don't until you get there and then the usual time constraints prevail.

We met old Jim, he was a VN vet and spent his time now working on his chopper Harley. He was meeting his friend from Bishop for lunch. He was as deaf as a doorknob but a real gentle ole guy. I didn't want to ask how it got so deaf but I suspect it was war related?

We decided to cut Reno & Carson City out by taking the pass through towards Lake Tahoe, saving in time and putting that little closer to San Francisco. I know, it's a shame to cut these two cities out but we just can't see it all. This country is just too big. We turned east at Gardenerville and ran the 88 to the 89, got lost and turned back to the 88 again to the 50. Which we stayed on running all the way down to Sacramento. With all this highway switching though we were passing through some beautiful country. A different socioeconomic area than what we have been through. I guess the closer you get to Lake Tahoe the more up-market you are.

We had been told to top up with fuel in Nevada where it was cheaper than California.

We passed through one idyllic town the original name of Alpine Village, with lovely trees, streams running through it with lovely old style homes. A Sheriff's building, a post office and a pub, an American flag in the little square, (actually every town has an American flag flying) and probably some squirrels in the trees. Perfect, I could have lived there. The locals would have seen us ride through and probably thought 'huh bikers', and then 10 minutes later seen us bike back through again!

We enjoyed running down the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the sun. You couldn't help but notice that the air wasn't as dry and the deserts that we had been in ever since leaving LA.  The air was moister and although we couldn't smell the coast and the sea yet, we knew it wasn't going to be long.

These mountain passes are just beautiful all still with pockets of snow vainly clinging onto the trees or ground.  Spring is definately a good time to travel if you are prepared to take the risk with the weather.  Like when we passed through Sedona.  That seems like soooo long ago, although poor ole Nev kind-of gets a constant reminder about it.

We stopped for a coffee and stretched our legs, OK bums, then carried on. The 50 turned into the I-80 and we skirted Sacramento. The traffic through here was horrific and we weren't used to it. We were back on the magic carousel of the city switches, turnpikes and on and off ramps.

I suggested to Nev that we take pot luck on the next exit and find a Starbucks or MacDs for a break, and find out somewhere to stay. This we did and ended up in the lovely little town of Dixon. TripAdvisor have us 4 choices and we chose our usual, the Comfort Inns. Interestingly enough I phoned ahead to see what we could get the place for and the best price they could give us was $179. This was through a central booking office,  goodness knows where that was. We just rocked up and asked and they gave us it for $100. Hhmm..

Sadly it was in Dixon that the jaw guard of my helmet decided to get itself squashed under goodness know what. I had put it under the bungee cord on the back of my bike for the short trip to the hotel and it decided to jump ship. Oh well, I can get another one.

We went to Cattlemens for some tucker and met the lovely Malory who waited on us. What a little gem. Good advise on the food and the beer which was brewed locally. She knows all about NZ and when she finishes her study, (she's studying human development), she and her boyfriend are coming to visit and maybe work for a while there. He is an engineer. They are coming to stay with us when they do.

A nice little walk home listening to the zooming traffic on the freeway.

We did some washing while here much to our own relief, we were stretching the clean undies department a bit!

Into nice warm big bed...

Nighty nite!