10 Questions About…

News flash: Lake Tahoe is very, very pretty. The water is so blue, and the mountain ranges hold the lake like bowl. The mountains are brown and green, dark and snowcapped. I didn’t have an idea what Lake Tahoe would be like. We ate at South Lake Tahoe. It turns out there are lots of resorts that feel like they are in Northern Minnesota down the block from corporate casinos. Very weird. Again, the nature is striking but the vibe is weirdly dime store bougie. That being said, I bet there are pockets that I didn’t see that are downright fancy bougie.

Our afternoon of driving was interesting. The nature continued to be amazingly beautiful. At least that’s what Lily tells me. I was driving up and down the side of a mountain with people who clearly were more comfortable with near death driving than I am, so I never took my eye off the edge of the road. About 10 minutes after I handed off the wheel to Lily who police cars whizzed by – not easy on a 2-lane highway. We didn’t think much until a few minutes later, when we could see the smoke. We have the pictures and videos below. We weren’t afraid for ourselves – once we figured out how they were going to divert us. But scary to see how quickly the fire grew.

Well, due to an issue with the rental car (fuming to come later depending on resolution) and the fire, Lily and I were running late all day. Running late when you’re driving through a rural desert is being worried about finding food at the end of the day and driving in the dark old’ desert. Our lack of planning served us well when we ended up in Tonopah NV – during Jim Butler days. He was the founder of Tonopah. Apparently, he was in the area and had a donkey friend. One morning, the donkey was gone so he searched everywhere. He found him in this area and (as was told to me), like every angry old dude, he tried to throw a rock at the donkey. He bent down to pick up a rock. It was super heavy because it was silver. And so began the town. And we’re so lucky, we’re here for one night of Butler days. Karaoke all night long – one of Lily’s favorite things.

This deserves so much more than one sentence but the theme of Butler days this year is – Try That in a Small Town.

Finally, Tonopah is home to a very creepy Clown Motel. It is built next to a now defunct cemetery that is final resting place to many victims of a local plague and several fires. It has been featured in movies and comic books. It was too scary for us to stay there.