Fear, Thy Name is Route 89

By Monday it was time to test my theory that what I had was a sinus infection--something I have never had before. Minden, the town next to ours, had a beautiful, state of the art urgent care walk-in clinic. I checked in with a very nice woman who, after I gave her my address, told me that she was from Bangor ME and that her father was born in Braintree. The Boston area connections just keep coming. I didn't need to wait long, and the doctor confirmed that I did indeed have a sinus infection. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and a powerful decongestant and off we went to the drugstore. Thank goodness for health insurance: I didn't have to pay anything except the $10 at the drugstore for the medicine.The drive around Lake Tahoe is 72 miles, billed as "the most beautiful drive in America." From South Lake Tahoe, just over the mountain from us, we took Route 89 up the western side of the lake, into California, north to Incline Village, then south down Route 28 back into Nevada. It is indeed a spectacular drive. The views are indescribable. Equally indescribable is how scary Route 89 is. It climbs the mountains with hairpin turns along cliffs that simply hang over the edge of the mountain--and no guard rails. I think my heart stopped every time a car came down in the opposite lane. By the time we realized that this wasn't going to get any better, it was too late. On we went until we finally reached the top of the lake and were on our way down. The road down was not much better, but it did get a little less gut-wrenching as we passed Crystal Bay.
We had hoped to see the Ponderosa Ranch, the location of the ranch shown on the television show Bonanza (although the show was shot largely in Hollywood, the ranch was used for exterior shots). Tacky, yes, but a little slice of childhood memory. Unfortunately, when we got there we were told that a private individual had bought the ranch two years earlier and the entire place is locked up. No one seems to know what the buyer is going to do with the land, but it seems logical to assume that he will either develop it with a hotel/resort or condos or homes. The private homes around Lake Tahoe are huge, expensive, and beautiful. We made it back unscathed.
As a reward for our bravery on the mountain road, we went out to dinner. Restaurants in the area, even in the tiny towns near our resort, are generally not cheap. This was one of only two nights we ate out. As an added bonus to our (very good) dinner, we were treated to a floor show going on at a nearby table. A very young, none too classy, woman was having dinner with two men she clearly had not met until that evening. The men were, to put it charitably, fairly clueless and not at all sophisticated or good looking. The woman was trying very hard to appear captivated by everything they said, was giving them (and everyone else) an unobstructed view of what was falling out of her halter top, and was insisting on ordering lobster (the most expensive item on the menu). We saw two bottles of wine come to the table in the space of about 15 minutes. Philip was amused because the men didn't seem to understand that the dinner was only the beginning of what they were going to end up paying for.