THISPRESENTSOJOURN

Before October 24 the farthest northwest I’d been of Colorado was, well, I’d never been northwest of Colorado. That morning I boarded a plane and crossed two time zones into the past, touching down early afternoon in Reno, Nevada. Before my airplane landed, though, it flew.

The drive from Reno to Lake Tahoe is not long in terms of distance but the definition of length of trip is affected by a few factors: mountains to climb (or to cut back and around), degree of motion-sick-sensitivity, whether or not one sits in the far back seat of a 15-passenger shuttle van.

We came to a beach, a commodity rare in North Texas. I wore a peacoat on a beach, even rarer yet!

On Sunday, my traveling partner Daniel and I decided we’d rent a car and make the loop of the entire lake – about 74 or so miles and split by the California and Nevada state line.  It was my first time in California, and, decidedly not my last.

We rented a KIA with automatic windows so we could roll them down.

This is Emerald Bay in South Lake Tahoe, the most famous and photographed place on the perimeter of the lake. Any postcard of Lake Tahoe you see probably was shot somewhere in this area.

After spending some time at Emerald Bay photographing and growing terribly cold in t-shirts, what remained on the road before was about 36 miles untile we were back at Incline Village in North Lake Tahoe. Before the sun set, we stopped for dinner at another beach just east of Emerald Bay.

On our last night, we packed everything up and headed back in to Reno, the city from where our plane would ascend the next morning. We decided to go cheap instead of paying another day’s fee for at the resort which’d been comped the two nights prior. We quickly located a motel whose name alone was reason to book a night.

The next morning came early.  But what you’ll find in Reno is that it’s never too early to gamble, and that there is no place unsuitable for slot machines. This may or may not be the amount I won on Wheel of Fortune while waiting for our flight.

Here is an airplane under sunrise in Reno.

Here is a photograph I took of Phoenix from an airplane.

When back in Dallas, feeling renewed and with conviction and clarity about purpose, direction, and understanding better my own part in the Whole.