13th May
For the best part of $100, I expect better than a gas-station style Danish and a luke warm cup of coffee for breakfast. I’m destined to be disappointed…
I load the bike and set off east along Highway 20. It’s a well surfaced two lane road, which winds its way south and east towards Sacramento. I stop at Nice (pronounced Niece – as in the French city) for breakfast. As I leave, the waitress tells me to ‘Have a niece day’ – it would’ve been funnier if she could make it sound like she hadn’t said it a million times before…
The road runs around the north shore of Clear Lake…
…which is highly developed as a leisure area – it seems that every square inch of the shoreline is utilised – there are jetties and little businesses everywhere. It’s still a pretty spot, though.
Traffic here is heavy. There are lots of RVs travelling in both directions and, due to the long sections of double yellow lines, overtaking opportunities are few. Which is just as well, as I have rarely seen so many Police and Highway Patrol cars! No wonder California’s public spending is in a mess – the wages bill for its Law Enforcement Officers must be huge!
The road continues east towards Yuba…
…where I notice another example of classic American advertising
…
Further on, and I notice another town where it must be difficult to sell real-estate…
After travelling through the outskirts of Auburn, I turn onto the CA49 – an extremely ‘technical’ and challenging road, cut into the side of a hill and running down towards the American River…
…the view from the bottom is spectacular, with an amazing bridge arching hundreds of feet above me…
Soon I’m riding through the town where Cool was invented. They made a major export of it, mostly to surfers on the Californian coast, before the seam paid out in the early 1970s.
In Placerville, I stop at a Starbucks. I buy a cup of their over-priced coffee and fire up my laptop, to take advantage of their ‘free internet connection’. It doesn’t work.
Apparently, you can get a day’s free internet – if you open an account with T-mobile. In order to achieve this, they need a raft of personal details (including your credit card details – even though it’s free) – bollocks to that
. I make my displeasure felt to the manager (who is an 19yr old surfer-dude, with no clue as to what’s happening) and ride on…
US50 climbs high into the Sierras, following the American River…
It reaches over 7200ft before it starts its long descent towards the stunning Lake Tahoe…
Once again, I find that I’m very tired – can’t work out why -
- so I decide to stop at South Tahoe for the evening. I have a slow ride along the southern shore of the lake…
I get a (very reasonably priced) room at Motel 6, and, in the absence of high speed internet, access the dial-up connection, buy a 6 pack and slowly upload the pics…
For the best part of $100, I expect better than a gas-station style Danish and a luke warm cup of coffee for breakfast. I’m destined to be disappointed…
I load the bike and set off east along Highway 20. It’s a well surfaced two lane road, which winds its way south and east towards Sacramento. I stop at Nice (pronounced Niece – as in the French city) for breakfast. As I leave, the waitress tells me to ‘Have a niece day’ – it would’ve been funnier if she could make it sound like she hadn’t said it a million times before…
The road runs around the north shore of Clear Lake…
…which is highly developed as a leisure area – it seems that every square inch of the shoreline is utilised – there are jetties and little businesses everywhere. It’s still a pretty spot, though.
Traffic here is heavy. There are lots of RVs travelling in both directions and, due to the long sections of double yellow lines, overtaking opportunities are few. Which is just as well, as I have rarely seen so many Police and Highway Patrol cars! No wonder California’s public spending is in a mess – the wages bill for its Law Enforcement Officers must be huge!
The road continues east towards Yuba…
…where I notice another example of classic American advertising
…
Further on, and I notice another town where it must be difficult to sell real-estate…
After travelling through the outskirts of Auburn, I turn onto the CA49 – an extremely ‘technical’ and challenging road, cut into the side of a hill and running down towards the American River…
…the view from the bottom is spectacular, with an amazing bridge arching hundreds of feet above me…
Soon I’m riding through the town where Cool was invented. They made a major export of it, mostly to surfers on the Californian coast, before the seam paid out in the early 1970s.
In Placerville, I stop at a Starbucks. I buy a cup of their over-priced coffee and fire up my laptop, to take advantage of their ‘free internet connection’. It doesn’t work.
Apparently, you can get a day’s free internet – if you open an account with T-mobile. In order to achieve this, they need a raft of personal details (including your credit card details – even though it’s free) – bollocks to that
. I make my displeasure felt to the manager (who is an 19yr old surfer-dude, with no clue as to what’s happening) and ride on…US50 climbs high into the Sierras, following the American River…
It reaches over 7200ft before it starts its long descent towards the stunning Lake Tahoe…
Once again, I find that I’m very tired – can’t work out why -
- so I decide to stop at South Tahoe for the evening. I have a slow ride along the southern shore of the lake…
I get a (very reasonably priced) room at Motel 6, and, in the absence of high speed internet, access the dial-up connection, buy a 6 pack and slowly upload the pics…
