Drive From Sacramento to Tahoe Valley Campground

Friday 5/11/2012

After spending 4 days in Sacramento having our Nest worked on, we finally were back on the road and heading toward Lake Tahoe.

We get a glimpse of the Sierra Nevada Range again, as we travel east on Hwy. 50. Here is Joe to explain what our motorhome problem was that held us up for 4 days in Sacramento. Joe: The problem turned out to be a clogged lift pump. They had to remove the muffler to get at it. When they opened it up they found some small pieces of what looked like silicon clogging the valve inside that opens to let the fuel through. Best guess is that when the motorhome was built and the fuel tank was installed that some silicon from the hose seal got into the tank and has been floating in there all these years. Hard to beleive! One of the mechanics also told us the story of how they had a similar problem years ago and ended up dropping the fuel tank and discovered a cellophane cigarette wrapper that was floating around the tank and getting sucked up against the fuel hose blocking the fuel flow and causing the engine to die, then it would drop back down into the tank. Best guess on that, was that some cruel practical joker put the cellophane in the fuel pump nossel at a gas station. For us there is no guarantee that there isn't more Guess we will keep it fuller as we were down to 1/4 tank when this happened.(After all the repair and general maintenance was done at Cummings the bill came to $2,700. Ouch!)

Sacramento sits at 25 feet above sea level, so at this point we had been doing a lot of climbing, when we arrived in Placerville, CA.

In Pollock Pines there is a ROD Campground that we thought about staying at, but they do not have sites big enough for 40 ft. motorhome. As it went, we stayed in Sacramento anyway!

Our drive to South Lake Tahoe was 105 miles.

When we entered into the Eldorado National Forest, we were at 4000 feet.

Then we started back down.

Ugg, we lost about 1000 feet and were back to 3000 ft.

The road was two lane most of the way, but it had a lot of pull outs, to let your tail go by.

More climbing to 5000 ft.

At 5600 feet we see snow on the mountains.

At 5100 we go through Strawberry, population of 50.

So far the road has been curvy, with climbing and some descents, but not scary. This curve was the first scary part of the drive. But was nothing compared to what was to come!

We reach 7000 ft. The highest we had gone in our new Nest so far was 3000 ft., until this drive. Joe said he was finally getting the hang of driving Nest 2 in mountains. " Just getting the hang of it, and I am sitting over in the passenger seat"!

We reach the summit at 7,382 ft.

The sign tells us we had a 5% grade for the next 4 miles,

as we came to this curve.

Joe says, "There it is"! (meaning Lake Tahoe)

I think, " Holy crap"!

"It's beautiful, but holy crap"!

Click, ( If you haven't read my blogs before, when I get scared, I preoccupy myself by taking pictures).

zoom click,

click,

click!

We get to a place were I could breath again.

Joe said that the last couple miles scared him also.

Small town outside of South Lake Tahoe, but don't remember the name.

South Lake Tahoe pop. 23,609, Elevation 6252ft.

Tahoe Valley Campground is well located, one block off  Hwy 89, the hwy we came into town on.

We followed two other RV's into the campground.

The people in front of us were from Iowa.

Joe goes to register.

We found that the park was almost empty.

After setting up, we do the "check out the neighborhood thing". Laundry and game room are also in the same building as the registration.

Playground

Tennis court

Swimming pool, but not yet filled or open yet.

Basketball court

We pick site # 168 after setting up in another site, and not being able to get a satellite signal. After talking to the camp host in the park, Joe found out that the park is 1/2 full on Memorial Day. Then on the Fourth Of July, the park is completely packed. From then on to the end of August, they are full. The first of September it is like it is now, a ghost camp! There looks to be about 400 to 500 tent and RV sites. While we have been here, there have been no more than 15 campers at one time. We were suppose to stay here for two weeks, but we lost 4 days in Sacramento. This campground takes Coast to Coast members, so we were able to come in on CTC at $15 a day. Because it is an Encore campground, we had to pay an additional $3 a day, since we are not encore members. We also paid for the four days we were sitting at Cummis in Sacramento, because we had reservations, and didn't know when we would arrive. After getting here, I guess we would not have had to had reservations. This is the first park that has been empty like this. We leave today for Nevada City, CA. for four days, then back to Sacramento for another four days. I hope you enjoy our stay in Lake Tahoe as much as we did, (I will blog about it in the next few blogs.)

Tahoe Park on Dwellable