Published on

9/19/11 4:54 PM

Pacific Standard Time

Part Deux, Day Three

Our intentions were to scout the wine country in more detail today. We had passed through Sonora on the way to Murphys and thought we would start there.

Sonora is a larger, older town with a busy main street and lots of shops, banks, hotels and bars, etc. Since it was early, we thought we could grab some breakfast and do some exploring. It turned out that we could find absolutely no place in town that was serving food. Several of the bars were open, but no food. None of the restaurants opened before 11:00 AM. We walked to the outskirts of town and finally found a taco truck that just opening for business that day. Felt like Mexico. A couple of tacos and we were good to go. Our exploring had pretty much been taken care of in our search for a meal.

Back across town, we pointed our bikes toward Angels Camp for our next stop. Angels Camp is a nice, clean little town with a high number of antique and souvenir shops.

There are a number of small towns in Calavarus County, separated by a smattering of wineries just off of the connecting roads. It didn't take too long to begin suspecting that the remainder of towns in the area would be much the same as that already explored. Peter finally made the suggestion to head off to Carson City rather than continue exploring antique shops. Moments later, we were mounted up, GPS programmed and ready to roll.

The GPS directed us to Highway 4 to cross back over the Sierra Nevada's to drop us on the Nevada side.

Highway 4 must be one of the most unique, challenging and beautiful roads our little electronic guardian mama could have chosen (aka GPS). The road is twisty and passes by lakes and streams, hills and valleys its entire distance. Part way up the scenic west side, the road changed from a two lane highway to what looked just like a generous one lane road. The road became quite narrow. The pavement has fog lines painted on either side but no dividing stripe. It is two lane however. Oncoming vehicles seemed to meet us at the most awkward moments and because it was so twisty, you never knew when that might be. On coming motor homes were particularly interesting. Some of the switch-back turns were so tight, you pretty much took them at an idle. Once through, we entered Nevada and it was short ride to Carson City.

As we entered Nevada, we fulfilled our pact to stop at the first casino we came across, so I could gamble some 50/50 winnings I lucked into a few weeks prior. We soon found a slot machine that wasn't too greedy and left a little heavier than we had arrived. Off to town.

I tried using the features of the GPS to find us a room. It did serve as a suggestion but it's location abilities were outdated. After asking, we finally found a suitable room for the night (thanks to Peter's keen direction finding capabilities).

A little non-productive gambling, dinner at Mo & Sluggo's Bar And Grill, a nightcap at The Blue Bull and that was about it for the night. We meet the girls in Reno tomorrow.