Highway 395 Road Trip Day 3

Today started out well.  The weather was beautiful, the temperature was warm and clear skies.  We had breakfast at the hotel again.  We got packed up and finally got out of the hotel around 10:00am.  The drive up the 395 was fairly uneventful.  There really isn’t much between Bishop and Tahoe (well, maybe Mammoth, but we did that yesterday).  There are a bunch of small towns, but this is high desert once you get past Mammoth.  The first interesting site really is Mono Lake at Lee Vining.  You pass a bunch of small “towns”. 

We did stop in Bridgeport, which is down the mountain from Mono Lake.  Basically we stopped for a bathroom break and to buy some lotto tickets.  Fuzzy told me that Bridgeport is known for its 4^th of July fireworks spectacular.  Apparently people drive from miles around to go to this event.  Who know?  (Well, Fuzzy did.) 

We drove for a while past Bridgeport, and finally came to the turn off for Highway 89 which takes you in the back way to Tahoe.  It’s a very windy road, and where back in October I ran into that herd of sheep coming down the mountain.  You have to be careful on the 89 as you come to a few T-stops that you have to make the right turn to stay on 89 – and of course, I missed one and turned the wrong way – but figured it out quickly and got back on track.

Eventually we came to the town of Markleeville, a tiny little strip in the heart of Alpine county.  We stopped there for lunch at the Wolf Creek Restaurant and Bar, right on Hwy 89.  I ordered the Club Sandwich, which came with crinkled fries.  The sandwich was on a whole grain bread that really made it remarkable.  It had a honey wheat taste (the bread) and it paired up well with the ham, turkey, bacon and cheddar.  I wolfed the whole thing down.  And the fries were extra crispy, which I like.  For a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, it’s a great place to stop off.  After eating, we walked around the town for about 10 minutes (that’s really all it takes).  It’s a very pretty little town.

We headed on out to Tahoe finally and finally arrived at the south end of the lake around 3:00pm.  We couldn’t check in until 4:00, so I did a loop all the way around the lake so Fuzzy could get the full treatment.  We drove up the California side and made a stop to get a view of Emerald Bay, and continued on through the towns around the lake until we finally stopped at the Cal-Neva Resort right on the north dividing line of California and Nevada.  The casino was a ghost town – we were literally the only patrons.  I had stopped as I wanted to check when they have the tunnel tours (they have these ‘secret” tunnels under the hotel from bootlegging and gangster times).  I didn’t get to do the tour back in October.

We continued on going south on the Nevada side until we finally reached our hotel.  I had a Groupon for Harvey’s (it’s a Harrah’s hotel).  We are in the new tower in one of the upgraded rooms.  It’s actually very comfortable and nice.  The bathroom is huge, and the casino has some decent games.  So far I am still breaking even.

For dinner we walked across the street to California to check out what restaurants were at the local resorts, but nothing interested was jumping out at us, so we went back to the hotels and decided on the buffet at Harrah’s (it’s right across the street from Harvey’s  and connected by a tunnel).  It’s on the top floor with views of the mountains and late – very pretty.  I won’t go into details since it’s a standard casino buffet, but the food was pretty good, and it was $20 a head.  No bad.

We’re still debating what to do tomorrow.