August 29: Providence > Boston > JFK > San Fransisco > Lake Tahoe

I seem to be able to structure travel days that are incredibly long. My trips to Hong Kong have always entailed long periods of travel, and my current trip out west to Northern California and Nevada worked out to be a really, really long day as well.

A flight out of Boston at 6:15 necessitated a very early departure from Providence. My alarm was set for 3:45, to get on the road by 4:15, to be at the airport by 5:15 to check in an hour advance. Everything actually went according to plan, and I was seated at the gate, ready to board.

Sunrise over Logan Airport

The flight from JFK to San Francisco was uneventful, and I even managed a little bit of sleep on the plane. I also managed to read the Stephen King novel Cujo it it's entirety on the trip, so much for having something to read on my trip!

My friend Anna (my co-pilot for the first leg of the trip) met me the the airport and we made our way over to Payless cars for the rental-minivan. They were a bit disorganzied, and the first Caravan that they gave us was a mess inside, cookies and crumbs and garbage on the inside - and they wanted to make sure we didn't trash it! I went in and swapped out the blue van for a black one, and then we were off.

Venturing out onto the 101 was exciting, and since it was early and there wasn't much traffic it wasn't really all that bad. We headed to Stockton, CA and then onto secondary roads, up towards Lake Tahoe.

The rolling hills of inland California, which replaced the miles and miles of orchards.

Since there is a fairly large migrant population in this area, there is a lot of great Mexican food. I hadn't eaten anything since the morning (was it 11 am on the plane? 2 pm? what? Who knows...but I was starving).

Crispy tacos with carnitas...still wondering what carnitas is, but hey it was good.

The Caravan looks good out on the planes of California.

We detoured through the business district of Jackson, CA which was a really cool old mining town. We didn't have time to stop, but this hotel "The National Hotel" looked liked a place I'd love to stay.

Even after that huge meal at Coyotes, there was still room for ice cream. It's melty, you know, so it can fit down into the cracks and crevices of your stomach! Munnerlyns in Pine Grove had some amazing ice cream flavors, but I went with my standard strawberry, and I wasn't disappointed.

On the drive up CA 88, there was so much beautiful scenery to see, and we managed to hit the drive right during the sunset. Here Anna is trying to capture some of the beauty.

Photos just don't do it justice.

The sunset didn't even seem like it was a real, like it was some sort of backdrop for a theatre production.

After darkness descended, it was hard to take pictures, and I was exhausted. We made it to Lake Tahoe in good time, just over 6 hours from San Francisco. I was exhausted by this time, and fell asleep quickly by 10pm.