Right Turn onto I-80 - Sacramento and Lake Tahoe

First stop – Sacramento. Another short day – 130 miles. I had been told to look out for the wetlands along the way, and I passed agricultural fields associated with UC Davis. My friend Terry once spent a vacation in Sacramento and Gold Country, and ever since she told me about it, I wanted to see it for myself. Not to mention that I was going to another state capital. I want to see every state and every major league baseball stadium and after that - ? I don’t want to have a particular quest, though when I’m in the neighborhood, I’ll see a state capital, and I’m always up for a National Parks passport stamp (I wrote those sentences before deciding to write up all of my post-Amtrak 2010 doings first – at least I’m consistent, with baseball stadia, state capitals and NPS passport stamps all in the mix!).

I arrived just before dark – even though I was no longer in Morocco and could travel at night, it’s always nice to arrive in a new place before dark. I had time to see the State Capitol. This one had dioramas from each of California’s counties, and I took a picture of the door to Governor Schwartzenegger’s office. The capitol grounds also had a tree tour and some peaceful gardens. I went to my inn; there was a nice place to eat nearby, and then I reorganized and repacked my stuff. With a chill in the air, and winter destinations to come, it was time to take out some of the winter clothes, time to start wearing a coat.




Sacramento is a historic town as well – this is where the four railroad barons (Crocker, Stanford, Hopkins and Huntington) got together. The next morning, I went to the Crocker Art Museum – a nice little collection in a fine old mansion, including portraits of the barons and other historical context, and also a special exhibit of Buddhas to bring me back to the Southeast Asia part of the trip. Down by the river there’s old Sacramento, with a mini-Golden Gate bridge (this one is painted gold!), a railroad museum and a historic park (both are now on a list for another time… I had time for one thing, and it was the art museum). There was also an Indonesian restaurant there (who could have guessed?) and I had some nasi goreng – had only a month gone by since I had Indonesian food in Indonesia? It seemed longer ago.




On to Lake Tahoe! When I had lunch with Paul in Oakland he asked me if I had chains for my tires – I didn’t realize people still use chains! Or snow tires! I thought everyone had all-season radials. I’ve driven in the mountains in the snow before, but on interstates that were plowed. So it was with some trepidation that I approached. It turns out that when chains are called for, there are people who will put chains on for you and take them off for you. There was snow on the ground, but no call for chains. Whew! I stopped at the Donner Pass, where there was a statue of the Donner party at the height where the snow was the winter they tried to cross, and a rest stop with more information. Beautiful mountains, those Sierras.


I stopped at Squaw Valley. My sister had sent me winter Merrells in Morocco, one shoe at a time. I guess I hadn’t worn them much, or I wouldn’t have sent them back (again, one shoe at a time). They were a tad tight! So at a swanky shop at the base of the ski lift, I bought some boots. Fortunately, ski areas sell boots! I took the gondola up into a cloud; so I missed the spectacular view, but at the top there was an exhibit about the 1960 Olympics (a far cry from 2002 at Salt Lake) and a skating rink (not the 1960 skating rink, but I didn’t find that out until later). I rented some skates, but the rink was a bit too choppy for me – still, it was nice to be on an outdoor rink part of the way up a mountain, with snow falling. On to the town of Tahoe City, where I found yet more Mexican food (interestingly, I have had it perhaps once since the Philippines…) and my inn for the night. 115 miles this day.