Wine and Traffic

Hello Skiers,
Leaving Tahoe once in a while for a short trip to greener pastures can be good for the soul.

Locals who love the winter and never get enough skiing under their feet do tire of shoveling, especially after a long period of storminess. We enjoy taking a trip to the foothills for a couple of days to fill our souls with views of rolling green grassy hills. Hillsides covered with dormant grape vines tickle our taste buds as we anticipate meeting old friends and sipping the fruits of their labor. This time of year wine country in the foothill areas offer the opposite of the winter in Tahoe. Wineries located in the foothills of El Dorado and Amador Counties are often very quiet in January and even more peaceful during the week. We love dropping in to our favorite wineries, finding friends pouring behind the bar, and chatting with them about their most recent offerings. During the week we are often the only people visiting making the experience even more pleasant.

There was one other couple at Perry Creek picking a few bottles

Obviously I was off tasting wine for a couple of days this week. We returned late Friday night. I decided to spend the night at my friends home in Truckee instead of heading home to Alpine. My hope was to strap on skis this morning, but that did not really work out the way I planned it. I left Truckee after eight. I knew it was a mistake. It took me a hour or more to arrive back home in Alpine Meadows. The parking lots were full. I tried to call for our local shuttle, the Mountaineer, but the wait time showed as 90 minutes or more. I wonder if the app was broken.

I tried driving up to the resort, but I was not the only one circling the parking lot looking for a space. I gave up at noon and calmly decided today was not a good day for me to ski. Missing three days of skiing, while drinking wine two of those days, is not my definition of a tragedy.

However, I did feel badly for those that were circling the parking lot after driving to Tahoe and most likely found themselves unable to get to the lifts.

It was a beautiful day. I assume the skiing was pretty good. Hopefully the snow on the south facing slopes softened so skiers and boarders could venture off-piste. Mark mentioned how crowded the groomed slopes were yesterday because the off-piste was very firm. If conditions were the same today, I can only imagine how crowded they may have been this morning.

Enjoy your day,

Andy