Road Trip 2011

[Torie]

Back in 2008 I kept a travelogue of the family road trip to AZ. Next week we leave for a similar adventure to Lake Tahoe with side trips while there and along the way. As always, and if it's convenient, I am open to meeting other posters.

Let's see. I will be traveling with two nice ladies through Utah on June 14 and 15 to show them my favorite places, with the culmination being the view from Deadhorse Point and the from the top of the ridge just north of Boulder, Utah looking down on the illuminated painted desert to the north in the rich late afternoon framed by the aspens and green meadowland  in the foreground, be in Grand Junction, Colorado on June 15, 17 and 18 helping one of the lady's sons with the issues associated with the oil pipe threading business for which he works, and then in Des Moines and Winterset, Iowa from June 19 through June 24 for the cropland auction I set up on June 23, and to get to know better the family farm as I hike it with my topo maps and a gps device giving me coordinates as I plot and scheme the ways and means to add value to it over time. 

But you already met me Mike, so I'm old news. But if our paths cross ... why not? 

[Torie]

Fallen Leaf Lake is gorgeous.  Nevada City is cute and historic (which is why Democrats like to live there  ).  Tahoe in my opinion is kind of mess, particularly the south end of the lake, and a tourist trap packed with weekenders from the Bay area and Sacto.  I would suggest going over Tioga Pass and then drive down to the Mammoth area myself, and maybe take a hike to Devil Potspile or something. Reno is  a dump. 

I don't know quite when on June 19 I will be landing in Des Moines. Pity I can't give you all a tour of Winterset, with its covered bridges, John Wayne's birthplace and the historic stone house that we own next door that apparently has been quite trashed by squatters, which my great grandparents lived in for decades during the first half of the 20th century after great grandfather ceased tilling the land himself.  That may be my next project to restore it. I get to make a presentation to the Water Board the next morning to pursue my little multi pronged agenda.