Winter again......

(CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

6:49 am - Monday - Elevation 6,300' - South Lake Tahoe, CA - 35º F, humidity, 32%, wind 10 mph out of east northeast......no wind detectable here in TVC.  Heavy overcast with snow showers.....affecting my DirecTV reception!  A light dusting of snow on the car and picnic tables.....not sticking to the ground.

Light dusting of snow this morning

I was awake Sunday before 7 am with the usual "it's moving day" type of thoughts going through my mind.  We woke up to very warm temperatures as you will recall from my intro yesterday.....after waking up to temps in the mid 30's the prior two days it was a surprise.  There was not much to do as we purposely created a small footprint when we arrived at Silver City, and we were not putting the VW back in the trailer for just a 40 mile jaunt up to South Lake Tahoe.

We were ready to roll over to the onsite fuel station around 9:30 am to put another $200 of diesel in the tank at $2.54/gallon which added up to just under 80 gallons putting us just over 3/4's of a full tank....perfect!  Then it was over to the propane station to take on 21 gallons of propane to top off that 60 gallon tank for the summer, and then we were on our way!

Within minutes I was grinding up US-50 towards Spooner Summit which sits at 7,100' elevation........

.......from the intersection of US-50 with US-395 it is 9 miles to Spooner Summit with grades ranging from 5-8% over that distance.....I was able to average about 40 mph over that 9 miles without the car in the trailer, and within 20 minutes I was passing the Summit sign .....shortly thereafter I could see the sign indicating the intersection of US-50 with SR-28 (Nevada) approaching......then  we began the annual plunge into the Tahoe Basin...... 

......a few minutes later my beloved Lake Tahoe came into view.....I still get that same feeling of excitement and anticipation I got the first time I saw that view back in 1953......

.....all along the route there was very little snow still in evidence at lake level, however when we pulled into Tahoe Valley Campground almost 6 months to the day after we left there was a lot of snow on the ground still......

.......Section E, where we usually spend our summer is to the right, and there is no way the Newell is going to be able to traverse that tiny road with so much snow still covering the road.  I parked the Newell and TLE and I walked into the store/office to see our friends from last year, and to meet a few new people.  TLE checked the computer to see what sites were available in Section G, and we settled quickly on site 167, which is where we spent our last month at TVC last year.....it's one of just a few sites in Section G with a view of the southern sky for satellite TV reception.  It looks like we'll be there for at least 10 days until we can get Section E open.

After we got ourselves settled we took a walk over to our site in Section E to find it clear of snow....... 

......so it just remains to get the road cleared of snow enabling us to be able drive the Newell and trailer over there and get set up for the summer.....on the other hand, the sites to the left of our site are still buried in snow.....

.....I had a number of packages awaiting our arrival, and I spent the afternoon opening them, and in once case assembling one of them....

.....I ordered a large Rubbermaid Deck Storage container about 6 weeks ago....it will come in handy this summer to keep some of our outdoor stuff out of the weather when not in use.

Around 4 pm we drove over to Lake Tahoe Pizza for our 4th annual 'Arrival at Tahoe Valley Campground' dinner....we always order the 'Jackpot Pizza' with anchovies.....it is sooooo good.....

.....I still say this is the best pizza place in the Tahoe Basin.....bar none!  We talked fondly about the last three weeks spent meandering our way up the Central Coast of California, and how we had finally gotten a taste of Spring, and how in the last 40 miles we had returned to Winter again.  I have no doubt the next 4-5 weeks will be cold with rain and snow still to come.....as I sign off we are still getting a dusting of snow......yup, it looks more like Winter here at TVC than Spring.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you need to by something from Amazon, think of us.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.