June 24 -- Bodie and Tahoe

We ended up eating breakfast at a podunk family restaurant on Tuesday morning, as Whoa Nellie's menu really centered on eggs -- not really ideal for the birthday boy who just doesn't do eggs. So instead Jarrett was able to get a healthy-sized portion of biscuits and gravy. Elsa ate as she hadn't eaten in days, and had a decent amount of a large pancake, almost an entire strip of bacon, some scrambled egg, a bit of orange, and a small glass of apple juice. I had a massive veggie omelet, even though I am really not supposed to be eating eggs. Too bad. It's not the first time on this trip I've given into the eggs and soy. I have done really well with the gluten, though, unless it has been secretly lurking in any dishes when we have eaten out.

We enjoyed our last views of Mono Lake from the car as we drove toward Bodie State Historic Park, a well-preserved ghost town from the late 1800s, which the state took over in 1962, and has since declared it in a state of "arrested decay." In 1859 William (a.k.a. Waterman) S. Bodey discovered gold near what is now called Bodie Bluff. A mill was established in 1861 and the town began to grow. It started with about 20 miners and grew to an estimated 10,000 people by 1880. By that time, the town of Bodie bustled with families, robbers, miners, store owners, gunfighters, and prostitutes of all kinds. At one time there was reported to be 65 saloons in town. Amongst the saloons were numerous brothels, gambling halls, and opium dens. Murders would apparently happen on a daily basis. There was a reason the Bad Boys of Bodie got their name. Now only five percent of the buildings remain because of a fire that pushed many its residents out, but it still looks much the same as it did over 60 years ago. The population now stands at five, and those five are park rangers who tend to its preservation, though do no restoration. It is pretty eerie to walk down the dusty streets, peering into the windows of the buildings, and still see remnants of these people's lives. There is still furniture in the houses, open bottles of calamine lotion sitting on dressing tables, fully stocked shelves in the grocery store, open beer bottles sitting on bars, etc. The drive getting into the town was something else, with the last three miles being a very rough stretch of dirt road, and one Betty was not too fond of, but it was well worth it. I don't think we will have many opportunities to see a true ghost town.













The drive back out to the main highway was just as rough, but the views were great. Again there was the brushy, dusty foreground against snow-capped mountains, with Mono Lake peeking in between. There were also seemingly random lush green meadows that popped up along the road. They contained every shade of green, and were sprinkled with purple and yellow wildflowers. I wanted to hop out of the van and go run through them, but unfortunately I did not even get a picture, as there was not a good place to pull off the road.










Once back out by the highway, we received some bad news. The folks driving behind us told us our brake lights were not working. Sure enough -- if you depress the brake pedal about 30 times, the brake lights might come on once. But they both do come on, meaning it is not a bulb issue. Jarrett replaced the fuse as well, even though it was clearly not blown. With no cell reception, and in being pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, we did not really have much of an option but to drive to Lake Tahoe without brake lights.

Relying solely on the GPS to get us to our campground at Emerald Bay State Park, we were in for a ride. It might have sent us on the "shortest" route, but it likely was not the easiest. We found ourselves crossing over the Sierras again, perhaps on one of the steepest drives we have encountered the entire trip. Betty was crawling and starting to warm up, the fan kicking in periodically to try to cool her down. We were a little concerned, as there was no shoulder on this steep, curvy road, and, again with no cell reception, and very few others on this road at all, who knows how long we would be stranded if it came to that. But after some (more) prayers and good driving on Jarrett's part, Betty pulled through for us once again.

The drive took much longer than expected, especially with more added road construction, but we made it into Lake Tahoe in time to grab some groceries, get to our campsite and stash things in yet another bear box (they are apparently pretty active around here right now, though we haven't seen any), and cook a quick pasta dinner. Our campsite is nothing to write home about. It is really just a dusty swatch of earth carved out of an embankment. It is tiny, so there is not much room for Elsa to run around, especially since we literally sit right on the edge of the road running through the campground, and our fire pit sits on an incline, making it virtually impossible to sit around it and enjoy a campfire. We have tried to make the best of it, though, and Elsa has enjoyed dirtying herself in the dust, collecting rocks and sticks, and whatever else she can find.

We hiked close to five miles on the Rubicon Trail yesterday, which was quite pretty. Lake Tahoe is massive -- much bigger than we expected. Our campground sits on a bay, so it is hard to get a really good perspective, but getting on the trail helped, as it takes you right along the bay and you can see the main part of the lake off in the distance. The water is very clear and very cold. We took the trail down to Vikingsholm Castle, a 1929 home owned by Lora Knight, who had it built with Scandinavian influences, and who instructed that it be built to mesh as much as possible with its surroundings. She ordered that not a single tree be cut down on the property, making its floor plan somewhat disjointed, but still very intriguing and lovely. She also had a tea house built atop an island sitting in Emerald Bay, the only island in Lake Tahoe.







We hit a rather low point in our trip yesterday, of which I won't go into detail, but it has become frustrating that we cannot find a place to stay on the coast our last few nights in California. It is Betty's turn to go into the clinic today. We found a mechanic who can hopefully help us out with brake light issue, though we are not sure how long it will take. We were supposed to leave Tahoe today, but we very may well be here one more night. If so, we might switch over to another campground closer to the lake. We are playing it all by ear. We have some other tentative plans laid out for our remaining time, but I will keep you posted as they unfold.