Monday, June 2, 2014

Days 1 and 2: Sore Asses and Lake Swimming

Day 1. San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. 211 miles 

Amanda here...
WE MADE IT! The first leg of the San Francisco to Alaska Motorcycle trip is in the books! I'll back up a couple of days and fill everyone in on all of the juicy details!

On Friday evening, Dan and I sat down in the living room with a six-pack of beer and stared at all of the gear littering the floor, not knowing where to start with the packing process.  We decided to start with opening a bottle of beer...with that out of the way, we started packing, re-packing, repositioning, turning, moving, pushing, pulling, and finally securing all our gear in all of the cases and dry-bags making the journey to Alaska.  I have to say, I am really proud of how well we did...and we only threw a few punches and curse words at each other. After an amazing send-off dinner with some great friends, we headed home and tried to get some sleep.  I never have a problem sleeping, but sweet Dan had trouble sleeping, like a little kid on Christmas Eve.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we awoke before our alarms went off, itching to get this epic trip started.  Sarah came over to hang out while we had breakfast, got our playlists in order, and finally helped us make it out the door and down to the motorcycle.  Dan quickly got the motorcycle outfitted with the cases, electronics, and other miscellaneous gear.  Sarah cheered us along and took lots of photos before waving us farewell.
 Here she is...all decked out! 
 Don't be jealous of our sexy get-ups! 

Saying good bye to Sarah with one our first attempts with the Go-Pro! Thank you so much to Rebecca for letting us borrow her Go-Pro for our adventure...we are already having SO much fun with these pictures! 

After a mandatory stop at Chick-fil-a in Fairfield, we made a couple of adjustments to the bike and our gear and got back on the road.  The weather had transitioned from cloudy and chilly in San Francisco to HOT in the North Bay. Temps reached 90 degrees as we took a stretch-break in Placerville, and then started cooling down nicely as we made our way up Hwy 50 into South Lake Tahoe.  I was so happy to lay eyes on the emerald lake. We both agreed that we forget how amazing Tahoe is until we lay eyes on it again! With the gorgeous blue water and snowcapped mountains as scenery for the last leg of the trip, we were super stoked to pull in to the Hyatt Grand Sierra Lodge to end our day of riding.

I don't know if y'all know this or not, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chick-fil-a!!! 
 First of our Go-Pro selfies while riding the motorcycle...get used to these! 

GORGEOUS DAY in Lake Tahoe! 

After stocking up on beer and food for dinner, we decided to hang out by the pool and soak in the hot-tub at our gorgeous condo as we waited for my mom and dad to arrive from Savannah.  Chef Dan made dinner and mom and dad arrived around 10:00pm.  We caught up on both of our travel days, ate dinner,  and drank wine before we went to sleep.  We all woke up, stuffed ourselves with blueberry pancakes, and hit the road to explore Truckee and find my daddy a brewery.  
 Exploring and shopping in downtown Truckee
 50/50 Brewery...check! 

After feeding our bellies and having some tasty beer, we made our way back to our condo and got ready for the BEACH!! I love the beach as much as I love Chick-fil-a.  Dan and I rented some stand-up paddle boards and got out on the lake.  Dan was the first one in the water, and I made it a little longer before making the plunge into the icy water....YIKES! We paddled around, swam, and met my kayaking parents in the lake before making our way back up the beach to warm up and play some corn hole! Dan and my mom teamed up and just barely won by one point. 















After an incredible couple of days in Tahoe with my mama and daddy, it's time to get this show on the road.  As I sit here, my dad is cooking us a nice hearty send-off breakfast and Dan is starting to gather all of our belongings that we have scattered throughout the condo.  We plan to take off in a couple of hours and make our way to Klamath Falls, Oregon.  We decided last night to take the more scenic route...that's what this trip is all about, right?...so we plan to be on the motorcycle for about 7 hours for 350 miles. I am not sure that my ass is ready to be sitting on the moto for that long, but now's the time to figure that out! Let's do this!!!!! 

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