Saturday morning saw us pick up our car and head out of San Francisco across the Bay Bridge amongst all the traffic. It was very busy and took some concentration to stay in our lane but things got easier as we went along - luckily I had downloaded good instructions to get us heading along the motorway to Reno. We went through the Napa Valley then started climbing the hills around Lake Tahoe. After 3 or 4 hours of driving we ended up in Reno - our first crossing of the California/Nevada border - we'll do it again a few times during our stay. We stayed at Circus Circus Casino - free drinks! We walked down the main street and were amazed by all the pawn shops - guns, leather jackets, diamond rings, everything - quite sad! Circus Circus was a nostalgia stay as we had stayed at Circus Circus in Vegas on our 1998 trip to the US.
On Sunday morning we headed out of Reno and drove to Carson City where we stopped and walked some of the Kit Carson trail past old buildings and statues. From there we headed to South Lake Tahoe and stopped to admire the lovely lake and imagine fishing and boating on it. We stopped along the road and enjoyed lunch - bought at a convenience store and kept cool in our polystyrene chiller. We did wonder if we were in bear territory and kept a look out as we ate our bread rolls and fruit! From there we drove through steep and rugged terrain - mostly at or above 7000 feet, through mountain passes and stopped for the night at a town called Lee Vining overlooking Mono Lake and close to the east entrance to Yosemite National Park. We had dinner at an old fashioned diner called Nicely's - food was good but servings were typical American - my half a fried chicken was lovely - 4 huge pieces served with soup, mashed potatoes, corn, bread roll and a salad! I'm still fitting into my clothes so far :-). Tomorrow we go to Yosemite then continue our drive south.