2014 Tahoe

Day 1

September 18, 2014 rick wojack

Another new week . . . must be time for another new adventure. Part of the Tuesday riding sub group of the mbbt is on the road AGAIN! Greg had just returned from Europe, TommyH had just returned fro Hawaii, BillyB had just returned from climbing Mt Rainier, Rick had just returned from France (three days before) and TommyG had just returned from Verona . . . (Wisconsin).

We met O’dark thirty at Kelly’s BP for the ride to Milwaukee . . .

. . . but not before BillyB makes a stop at Dunkin Donuts for his first breakfast of the day . . .

. . .some of the crew almost wet their pants as we rode past the Packers stadium in Milwaukee. . .

Once we got to Mitchell Aeroport the gang did what came natural to them . . .

9:30AM Greg and BillyB had a hamburger . . .

. . . TommyH checked his financials . . .

BillyB had a second breakfast . . .

and the other two headed for the bar. Never to early to have a beer in Milwaukee . . . plus we are on holiday!

Here are MaryJane and Mary heading to Seattle. MaryJane had just moved to Sun Prairie and loved it!! and Mary, on the right, lives in Fitchburg and had gone to school with TommyG. He had a crush on her in high school!

We did experience a few transportation problems along the way . . . our plane had sort of a hard landing at LAX . . .

You can see below how the jet engine became a little ‘out of round’ from contact with the ground.

After experiencing the bumpy ride to Europe, AND the issue at LAX, I was ready for anything they could throw at us as I napped the flight away . . .

There are fire issues in the Lake Tahoe area and we could see the King fire as we descended into Reno.

Ends up the smoke plume was blowing right towards our condo.

One more transportation issue. As you can see my yellow bag in the trailer its upside down . . .why? to hide the damage that had been done at LAX!

OUCH! The top was damaged by the dragging of it behind a trailer or it being caught on a conveyor until it just about burned up resulted in some quick negotiations with SW airlines, their agreeing to buy me a new back, a trip to the REI store 1 mile away and them cutting me a check for reimbursement!

Here is the gang waiting for me . . .

Like a lot of towns built on the false economy of gambling, Reno has it’s share of homeless of those downtrodden from chasing the American dream of gambling and getting something for nothing . . .

. . . including this poor soul lying in the door of the airport. His pleas for a little spare change touched our hearts and we too him to the Great Basin Brew pub for dinner.

New bag . . . good to go!

Gee . . . do we have enough gear?

After dinner it was time to head to Truckee . . .and towards the nuclear plume that would swallow our condo . . .

Oh . . . and we are already missing our honeys!

As we drove up the road to our condo, in our headlights we could see what looked like snowflakes beginning to fall. Wrong time of year . . . it was ash from the King fire blowing into the road. BillyB and I both having retied from the fire business may be pressed into service to help save the day!!