Subtitle: I Love My GPSIn our case, that road would be Interstate 80 from Reno to Sacramento.
So we found ourselves in Redding California, heading to Sacramento for dinner with my cousin Amy and her two adorable daughters. Well, since Redding is only about 160 miles from Sacramento, we had some time to kill. So we decided to make a quick side trip to RENO! Haven’t been there in years! It was a lovely drive with fabulous twisty roads and beautiful scenery. Just a few hours later and we were in the Biggest Little City in the World. Gosh were we surprised. Reno just isn’t the fun, happen’ city we remembered. It’s dirty, smelly, run down, and just overall depressing. But at least there was one bright spot – the Thai Corner Café was great. Friendly service, nice décor, and yummy food. We shared drunken noodles and Pa Nang curry.
Since Reno was such a bust, we decided to head back to Sacramento early – or so we though. I remembered checking GoogleMaps the night before and seeing that we could take I-80 all the way to Sacramento in just a little more than 2 hours. But since I didn’t print that map, or commit the route to memory, we plugged in our Tom Tom GPS and began the long long journey. For some unfathomable reason, the GPS guided us to Carson City, South Tahoe, along Pioneer Trail Road, Highways 397 and 50, up mountains, down mountains, past Incline Village, and finally, more than 3 hours later, we reached our destination. (Glad we left early!) So do I really love my GPS? Unequivocally YES. If we had taken the usual Interstate route we would have missed some truly spectacular scenery – mountains, lakes, rivers, rock formations, along with some beautiful flowers and spectacular trees. I could even overlook the aggravation caused by the total jerk driver that was revving his engine, changing lanes erratically, cutting people off, and generating a host of obscene gestures and verbal insults from other drivers. Don’t know what his problem was, but he needs to slow down and enjoy the journey. (Sometimes we all need to do that.)
Since Reno was such a bust, we decided to head back to Sacramento early – or so we though. I remembered checking GoogleMaps the night before and seeing that we could take I-80 all the way to Sacramento in just a little more than 2 hours. But since I didn’t print that map, or commit the route to memory, we plugged in our Tom Tom GPS and began the long long journey. For some unfathomable reason, the GPS guided us to Carson City, South Tahoe, along Pioneer Trail Road, Highways 397 and 50, up mountains, down mountains, past Incline Village, and finally, more than 3 hours later, we reached our destination. (Glad we left early!) So do I really love my GPS? Unequivocally YES. If we had taken the usual Interstate route we would have missed some truly spectacular scenery – mountains, lakes, rivers, rock formations, along with some beautiful flowers and spectacular trees. I could even overlook the aggravation caused by the total jerk driver that was revving his engine, changing lanes erratically, cutting people off, and generating a host of obscene gestures and verbal insults from other drivers. Don’t know what his problem was, but he needs to slow down and enjoy the journey. (Sometimes we all need to do that.)
We arrived at our destination in plenty of time to enjoy a delightful dinner with my cousin and her two charming daughters. The oldest is 7 going –on 15, the youngest is 5 going-on, well, 5. There are both adorable. They actually seemed to enjoy visiting with us as much as we enjoyed visiting with them. My cousin is a sweetheart, and apparently has a plethora of patience. She teaches fourteen 2 year olds every day at a Montessori school. (Oh please – just shoot me now!)
My take-aways from today: Skip Reno, but consider Lake Tahoe for future vacations and be sure to visit my cousin and her family the next time we’re in the central California area.
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