On The Road (Again)

Still on the road. We are staying at a low -end motel in Lake Tahoe. David is at a bar down the street with Zack, watching his beloved Twins. I am here in our dingy digs with Evan, drinking cheap wine in a plastic cup, Evan whimpering non-stop.

Tomorrow we will do some touring of Tahoe, and then will drive the final leg to Berkeley. The moving vans will arrive Thursday morning.

So far the trip has been fine. I have certainly identified that I am not truck driver material. While pieces of the journey have been beautiful, others (like the eerie drive through the salt flats of Utah) have felt rather monotonous. In order to keep myself interested, and avoid "drowsy driving" which could surely turn disastrous, I have succumbed to ingesting tons of toddler treats. We are talking gold fish crackers, teddy grams, granola bars, you name it-I have consumed it, I have no doubt the scale will reflect such when I find the courage to face it.

Today we had a leisurely drive from Elko Nevada to Lake Tahoe, California, stopping for a brief visit in Reno. The Reno experience comes on the heels of a Vegas vacation, and the contrast has been stunning. Vegas, all glitter, glam and excess, and downtown Reno-a crumbling, sad mess. We found the city to be rather depressing. The downtown area was lined with casinos, some of them left vacant, cheesy souvenir stores, and not much else. I felt as though we had walked into a ghost town, a few years before it was totally abandoned. Pre-children perhaps I could have seen the city in a different light, enjoyed the nostalgia of it, indulged in a few cocktails and gambled away the afternoon, however visiting with the kids made me weary. I wanted to cover Zachary's eyes as we passed a window display of coffee mugs resembling bare breasts, I wanted to cover his ears as we passed a bunch of heavily tattooed, pierced and filthy teenagers shouting profanity at one another and I wanted to scoop up Evan and hold him tight when a pathetic homeless man explained to me that children were (cover your own ears) "shit factories".

We left Reno after 45 minutes or so, and headed to Lake Tahoe, a stunning mountain resort. It is spectacular here, and I look forward to a morning hike with the family. Then on to our final destination, Berkeley, where we will spend the night on air mattresses in our empty new home. Thursday morning the movers will come and unleash total chaos as they unload 3000 square feet of belongings which I will need to squeeze into our 1500 sq feet house. It will be time to face the music, what seemed so far off in the future is now reality.