Trip'08.. we're off: to Bishop

The drive today was relatively short, but also quite pretty. We went East from Placerville up 50, and then using 207 to get to 395, which took up to Bishop.

We got to see lots of stuff today. First was Lake Tahoe - from Echo Summit, and then up closer. I take it for granted sometimes, having lived so close before, but this lake really is a spectacular location. The weather wasn't fully warm yet, but also sunny and cheerful. Then, we got to see a view of some Nevada territory coming fown 207, which was actually pretty neat. We ate lunch at Arby's in Minden. We weren't even far from home yet, but the people here already seem overtalkative as compared to the usual California asocial mindset. Then, we got into the real fun of 395: Topaz Lake - my favorite spot on this highway. We also got to see Mono Lake. The road into the Mammoth Basin was closed, but we did walk over the little bridge between the twin lakes - amid a positively frigid wind. Bishop had a Taco Bell, so we made that our spot for a dinner date :)

One interesting thing is that, along the way somewhere in there, 395 follows the West Walker River. There is a weird optical illusion (to me) on that stretch of highway. The thing is that the river is clearly flowing north, towards us as we are driving south. Yet, I could swear that we were heading downhill. The river wasn't even slowly meandering like there was a question about things, it was pretty swift. Perhaps the illusion has something to do with the mountain to the east being higher further north and getting less high to the south. So, anyways, I kept asking Heather how on Earth the river could be flowing uphill? "We're going down, down, down!" I kept repeating. But she said "Nope," and counter-repeated each time: "Up, up, up!" Haha. We were just being silly like usual.