Bill and Steve's Tahoe Adventure

Sunday afternoon was quite warm and sunny in Sacramento, and the idea of visiting friends up in Lake Tahoe sounded like a good idea at the time. Despite the forecasts of snow it just didn’t look that bad from the valley floor. So, against our better judgement, my friend Bill and I set off to have dinner with our friends, George and Dave, who were already up in Tahoe.

We sailed past the poor folks installing chains on their two-wheel drive vehicles with our fine 4-wheel drive Volvo but things soon came to a halt and it was slow going all the way up the hill. The snow was coming down pretty heavily, the winds were swirling around, and the driving became decidedly ... interesting. The odd jackknifed truck, and the occasional car off the edge of the road, made for slow progress and what is normally a 2 hour trip took us 5-1/2 hours. Still we made it unscathed.

Of course, the next morning the car was under considerable snow as you can see below and it needed digging out. Just another chance to play in the snow.

Bill, Steve, Dave and George

Unfortunately the trip down the hill to Sacramento was more than we bargained for – another 5-1/2 hours of slow going, but this time livened up with a little unplanned slide across to the other side of the road narrowly avoiding the Truckee River and an oncoming car, and then the loss of one of the windscreen wipers (I abused it too much when trying to free ice from the blade and it just fell off). Again we made it but, I think next time I will wait for better weather before being so adventurous.

Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz at The Palms

Wednesday night Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz played over in Winters (The Palms of course, that’s about the only place around here that hosts this kind of music these days).

I have been a long time fan of Bill Frisell but I didn’t know much about Greg Leisz until this week. However, Greg Leisz turns out to be this legendary pedal steel/slide guitar player who has played with just about everyone from Joni Mitchell to Smashing Pumpkins, Lucinda Williams to Joe Cocker in his long career (he must be my age – that’s old). I am not normally a big fan of the pedal steel guitar but in this jazz accompaniment setting, it was just wonderful. The two of them played so well together. They were both so un-assuming and gracious and perfectly suited to the small club atmosphere of The Palms. What made it even better was that it was so obvious that they were enjoying every minute of playing together.

If you want an example of how they sound, check out Bill’s Happy Dog Happy Man album. One of his best in my book.

The Tour of California

This afternoon the Tour of California Bike race came into Sacramento. Stage two of the tour started in Santa Rosa and finished with a few laps around downtown Sacramento. This is quite a significant race and all the big teams and the big names are here – Discovery, T Mobile, CSC, Rabobank. It's not quite the Tour de France, but perhaps the closest thing this side of the country.

Anyway, I took a late lunch and went down to spectate. I have never been to a major cycle race before and I was really impressed at all the organization and all the support that goes into making it happen. From the volunteers every few 100 yards to keep people off the course, the police to close of streets (there were lots of them), the motorcycle escorts (again so many of them), the lead cars, and then trailing support cars, not to mention the riders themselves. It was quite a production.


The trouble is that the riders all pass by so quickly. The peloton had chased down the breakaway by the time they reached downtown Sacramento and so they were all together when they passed me. It was just a blur of colorful lycra suits as they sped by. I couldn’t recognize anyone.


One of the more remarkable things was the following team cars, chasing the cycles through town at speeds way over the speed limit. What a job that must be to drive a team support car – chasing after the peloton, avoiding lagging cyclists, avoiding other team cars and the odd stray spectator. The whole thing looked very risky indeed. Not a job for the faint of heart.

Yoga

I have been trying to do a bit of yoga lately. After threatening to do it for many years, I am pleased to say I finally got around to doing it. The type of yoga I have been doing is Bikram Yoga – that’s the so-called “hot” yoga where it all takes place in a room heated to 105 deg F. Allegedly the high temperatures make you more flexible and more able to stretch but, in reality, while it makes you more flexible, it also makes it completely exhausting.

It has actually been quite a humbling experience for me. I felt that I was reasonably fit, but trying to make it through a 90 minute yoga session in 105 degrees of heat left me absolutely exhausted and acutely aware of how inflexible my body is. There are so many poses that I can’t even get close to doing at this point because my old body is just not flexible. Everyone says that you are never too old and that the flexibility will return but I am skeptical.

Anyway, I think the whole thing is doing me some good. Let’s see how long I keep it up and if some of that flexibility comes back (was it ever there I wonder?).

Still here, still running....

Not much new happening lately, so not much to write about I am afraid. This year is the same as last year – I am in the middle of training for the Way Too Cool 50 K in early March. I know I vowed never to run any ultras again, but 50 K is only just an ultra so I thought I would have another try.

However, yesterday's training run made me question what on earth I am up to. It was a 22 mile run from the cemetery on Sliger Mine Road down to Rucky Chuck and then back on the Western States trail to Auburn. Everything went well until mile 17 or 18 and then it all fell apart. There are good days and not so good days, and the last 4 or so miles yesterday were just really nasty. It's probably something to do with not drinking enough, or not eating enough or not eating the right stuff anyway.

Sliger Mine Road, by the way, offers a wonderful view of the American River Canyon. One of the nicest vistas around that area.