Yeah, keep right idiot.

5th-6th June.  Chester, CA to South Lake Tahoe, CA

Today started off with some good weather in the hills.  There were some thunderstorms in the distance, but nothing eventuated thankfully.

I fuelled up in a small town called Graeagle.  Usually, I like to pick a servo on the right hand side of the road - it makes it easier to get going again without having to cross traffic.  This was pretty much a one horse town, so I had to cross the road for the servo.  After filling up, and setting off again, I had a moment of brain fade and started to ride on the left hand side of the road.  For a moment I was confused as to why there were several cars coming straight for me - it took me a few seconds to wake up.  Surprisingly, I didn't hear any horns, but I had another break pretty much straight away.  I haven't done it since thankfully.

About half way to Tahoe, the scenery gave way to a valley and it was a nice change to see some flat land and open skies for a while.  Not long after this, I nearly started to head to Reno instead of Tahoe.  I think it's the first time on this trip that I had made a wrong turn.  I'm pretty sure I got lost every day for the first 7 days last time.

Lake Tahoe is an incredible lake surrounded by mountains.  There's also some serious money here as well with some very flash houses directly on the lake shore with some pricey looking boats moored near them. It's also incredibly touristy with people everywhere.

On the way into South Lake Tahoe, I passed a renaissance fair with people wandering around in medieval garb and swords and wooden boats - the lot.  Right in the middle of a forest.  Bizzare.

South Tahoe is right on the Nevada border.  Right on that stateline are two huge casinos that would dominate the skyline if wasn't for the ring of mountains that surround the whole area.  Traffic is pretty mad and it's obvious that this is a very popular holiday destination.

I had two nights here, so on the second day I did a lap through the Sierra Nevada ranges surrounding Tahoe.  I found one stretch of newly sealed road that was an absolute blast.  It would've been more fun on my VFR rather than the FJR as I really noticed it's weight as I tried to throw it around some of the tighter corners.

I now know the signal in the US for police up ahead.  If a biker pats his head, watch out up front.  It's saved me a few times now.  Also, I still reckon the US drivers are way more polite than Aussie ones.  I've lost count of the number of times that cars/SUVs have pulled over to let me through - even when they're already doing close to the speed limit themselves.  I don't reckon it's ever happened to me back home.

One of the passes though the mountains was Ebbett's Pass (8,700 feet) which was a bit hairy in places as it's not wide enough to have a centre line.  Given how big some of the SUVs are over here, I wasn't wild about coming around a corner face to face with a huge Ford or Dodge grill, so it was a slow trip through some pretty amazing country.  At the same time, I was again aware of how little armco is used in the National Parks.  It's a long way down some of these hills.

Somewhere along the way I turned right instead of left and found myself in Nevada when I should have been in California still.  It then decided to rain as I jumped on the highway back to Tahoe.  Once the rain cleared, the temperature started to rise, I saw on a time/temp display on a bank that it was 89F (31c), which wasn't so bad as long as I kept moving.

Miles today - 327 & 215 miles
Total miles - 1289 miles