Day 1: Emerald Bay

Day 1:  Emerald Bay
Sept. 11 2017

(Circle the Bay Part Two)

241 miles in 9 hours

(Total 241 miles in 9 hours)

I drove from San Carlos on the San Francisco Bay to Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe, just in time to catch a thunderstorm on the shores of the lake.

Album of The Day -- Abbey Road by The Beatles

Browsing albums, this one popped into my eye and my mind first.  Maybe because I had taken a bon voyage picture in bare feet this morning, and I identify with Paul who famously walks across an Abbey Road crosswalk in bare feet on the album cover.

I realized I had never given the album a full listen.  Come Together still feels inventive after all these years.  The jam that proceeds the end of The End is captivating.  And someone should do a cover of Sun King.  

Sacramento

I stopped to visit my friend Jen in Sacramento, and we went out for a lunch of Salmon Reubens at the The Easy on I.  

We walked by the governor's mansion that Jerry Brown has lived in more years than anyone else ever will (2 terms with his dad, 2 terms as a young man, 2 terms as an old man).

And we passed thru security to see the inside of the State Capitol with its beautiful ornate rotunda.

But I had to ask, why is this statue prominently featured on one of the Capitol entrances? What place does a royal crown have on a statue in a state government building?   Didn't we win that war too?

Emerald Bay

The approach to Emerald Bay from the south has been marred by a forest fire.  Last time I drove through this in the middle of the winter on a snowy night and there was a full line of trees between the road and the lake.  I had no idea how much the road hung over the lake.

The campground for Emerald Bay State Park had closed the day after Labor Day, so instead I camped in the National Forest campground across the road from the vista stop.  I waited for a gap in the rain to erect my new 2 person tent.

And then it rained good and hard half the night, with lightning flashing all the time.  I felt secure inside my tent as the rain fly did its job.  And it was sunny in the morning.