Truckee!

Today was great. Work has been dead all week, because physical therapy is out of the office. This morning I drove the explorer to work, raced Alison on the 4-star sudoku in the Tahoe Tribune, then my work day was almost over. I won the race, and she gets to bring me a present of her choosing tomorrow. I hope it isn't a lump of coal or ball of lint.

After my two hours at work, I drove back home and Cody and I played a game of starcraft. We stomped the comps, then headed down to Carson City to pick up my bike from its initial service. Cody headed on to Reno for some shopping, while I took the bike for a little joyride up to Truckee.

Like I said in my last post, I wanted to get out and get some writing done for my screenplay, so I found a little coffee shop in Truckee and settled in for an afternoon of writing. I ate lunch in Kings Beach at Jason's Saloon and Grill, and had a very yummy burger-dip and a lemonade to wash it down. The view from the grill is amazing:





Those photos were taken from the parking lot, just between the beach and the grill. I had my laptop set up at a table and hammered out a few lines on my screenplay, but decided I needed a better spot to settle down and write. I tipped the waiter 30% because I remember Stacey saying something about when you stay longer than normal, it is nice to tip a bit larger because of the extra time you are taking up at the table. Makes sense to me, and I'll try to do so in the future as well.



I stumbled onto Truckee Book & Bean while waiting at a railroad crossing, so I decided to check it out. It was perfect! There were two separate lounge areas, tons of books, a nice assortment of beverages, and wifi for customers. I went up to the counter and saw they served italian sodas, which I used to have all the time. There was no cherry available, so I went with raspberry, and asked him to put as much whipped cream on top as humanly possible. He took it as a challenge, and this was the result:



Heck yeah! I love my whipped cream on italian soda combo!

Having hi-speed wireless was nice, but in reality it really cut down on my script-writing. I probably got 1k words in today, but with no internet it would have been closer to 2k or 3k. I chatted with Tyler a bit about starcraft and other stuff, and browsed the internet a bit when I could have been writing.

At one point, I went to check my phone to see if Kristina had called about joining me for ultimate in Truckee (I left her a few messages). She hadn't called, but literally a minute after checking, my phone buzzed and it was her. Good timing! We talked a bit, and she ended up having league night in Sacramento--but she didn't really want to go. I tried to turn on the Chris charm and woo her over to Truckee for some pickup fun, but she flipped the tables on me. She's got skills.

She asked about hiking next week. We had talked a bit about going hiking next Tuesday/Wednesday, because I have a 27hr chunk of time I'm off between 10am Tuesday and 1pm Wednesday. Perfect for a little mid-week overnight hike. We agreed to meet up in Truckee on Tuesday at 11am, and I'm in charge of finding a place to hike to in the mean time. Once we agreed on that, she quickly said: "Well, then I guess I don't have to come play tonight!" It was a setup! I should have known.

So, instead of writing feverishly in my screenplay, I used my surroundings to my advantage and grabbed a few "hiking in Tahoe" books to get some ideas for hikes. I'm thinking not more than 5 miles, and hiking to a lake. There are zillions of options around Tahoe that fit those parameters, but I think I found a couple worthy candidates.

By the time my search was finished, it was frisbee time, so I packed up shop and headed over to the fields. Not one frisbee player. And even worse than no frisbee players, I was ten minutes late and as I walked down to the fields, I see this:



Field closed?! Ouch. None of the other fields were closed, just the one we used two weeks ago. I tried to call a few people to see if they could look online to see if any changes had been made to the pickup location, but I couldn't get ahold of anyone. I sat around for a few more minutes, and luckily people started showing up, and we were going to play at a few hidden fields off the back side of the main fields.

Frisbee was fun, I didn't play particularly well, but I had a good time. It is always fun to run around and toss the disc. A group of frisbeers were heading to a Mexican restaurant, but I declined and decided to get a quick start on the road home. Kings Beach might be my new favorite town on the lake. The good saloon/grill, and then I came across this gem of a sign while stuck waiting for road construction:



The ride home was a bit brisk, but still very enjoyable. I was riding in the very last of the sunset, and couldn't resist pulling over to snap a shot:



Tomorrow might either be a full day or a half day at work, I'm not really sure which yet. Most Fridays, physical therapy is the only thing there in the afternoon--and they aren't around for two weeks, so it might be pretty empty once noon rolls around. I think I've gotten about 8 hours in at work this week, but it is coming off Vegas, so I was happy to have a little breathing room instead of hopping right back in to a 40/hr work week.

Even though I only worked 8 hours the last three days, I am still looking forward to the weekend :)