It's 10 degrees outside!

While I've got some time while T is still asleep in our hotel room here in Truckee, California, I'll try to catch up on the story so far.

We left our home on the surface of a wet kitchen sponge about noon on Friday, in , what else, the middle of a rainstorm.
For the start of the adventure we chose rugged Hwy 36 over the mountains to the inland valley at Red Bluff. Only 2 hours out of sea level damp world we ran into snow and LOTS of it. Fortunately it was just at the summits and not very deep on the road less travelled so chain up was thwarted.

We reached I-5 and headed south. The valley is so wide and flat, such a contrast from our small choked vistas of home.
We were surprised to see so many Olive orchards along the road, miles and miles. On approaching Corning, we find that it is indeed The Olive City. Being tourists, on vacation, we had to stop and get us some of those Corning Olives. They were awesome! Onlives stuffed with garlic. YUM eat em up.

Further south we run into the rice fields and in the far distance to our east we could start to see the shadows that are the Sierras. As we got closer to Sacramento, we could see the snow covered peaks.

We hit Sacramento just after 5 and right into Friday rush hour traffic. Yum!

We decided to set our base camp at Auburn and settled into a hotel for the night.

Early Saturday morning we joined the parade which was the migration of skiiers up I- 80 to the ski areas of Lake Tahoe. Up Up we go soon hitting 5,000 ft elevation and everything covered in thick fresh new snow.
The scenery is glorious; I am only familiar with the landscape from my trips to and from the east coast via 80, and one round trip on Amtrak.
Instead of being sensible and procuring lodging for the night, we had to hit the slopes. The weather was beautiful sunny and still. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

There are ski areas everywhere! Form each vista one can see another set of slopes, skiiers and lifts. Driving is a breeze as the roads are clean and dry, a concern for us flatlanders without snow tires.
Only minutes out of Truckee and we are at Donner Ski Ranch on one side of the road and Sugar Bowl on the other. On the way up there are teens hitch hiking with their snowboards. We soon see that they just dive off the edge of the road through the powder making their own trails.

It only took me 2 runs for me to get my ski legs and feel confident to even work on my style. Having only skiid a handful of times over the past 20 years, it always is a worry as to how this old body is doing THIS year. But,those years and years of skiing as a kid still hold fast.
The Salvation Army skis are fine, the boots fit perfectly. The skis are probably a bit longer for the level I am skiing, but I soon got used to them. The only fall I took all day was when I ventured too far into the powder at the edge of the run on a steep part; lesson learned. Take the turn before I get into that.

We skiied non stop all day until 3:30 when I just hit the wall. Ted still had some in
him so he skiied a bit more while I sat in the sun at the lodge. He is a beautiful, graceful, and daring skiier, heading into the powder whenever he can and schussing down pass all of us careful skiiers who stop and evaluate anything a bit challenging.

From the lodge I could see a run very high up the mountain, a very steep Black Diamond. I watched skiiers crawl their way down, slow stopping. Occasionally an advanced skiier would come down, geacefully. I was waiting for, and did finally see the red and black parka that was Ted, passing those that wish they hadn't gone that way. Just skiing along, so beautiful.

Part 2.
"Donner? Party of 4?"
Our attempt to find food and lodging.