I suppose I should back up a bit further - the drama started earlier in the week when my car got locked in the garage - no electricity and so I couldn't open the garage door. Of course we did have the service door blocked by storage - which is our fault. But because it was locked in the garage all week, we couldn't get the new tires put on the car, and we had to take Dave's car. Only trouble with that plan is the chains we own are for my car not Dave's meaning he needed to go buy chains for his car. He picked up actual chains, not the cables...
So while we're getting hit with some much needed rain as we get into the foothills we were looking good until we hit Twin Bridges. Suddenly it turned quickly to snow and despite the fact all reports stated no chains necessary, we had to put them on the car right then and there. Thinking we could attach the chains, we got out there in the slush and cold putting them on without assistance. Mistake number one. We started driving off and then BAM - we heard the chains fall of not one but both tires! One of them did such a number it broke the car! Dave borrowed a crowbar from someone and fixed it, but oops. Needless to say we paid for them to put the chains on the car - and the chains were broken, but they figured it would get us up and into South Lake Tahoe.
We then went on and made the best of the trip. On Saturday morning while it was raining in Lake Tahoe, it was snowing up at our "sledding hill". Which was a relief, since we anticipated there would be very little "white stuff" up there.
Drew tried to catch snowflakes...
And he was rather daring, wanting to go as high up the hill as we would let him. Both Dave and I stopped sledding, the ground was hard - I hurt myself, and Dave broke his sled.
So while the boys were doing some runs, I built a snowman...
Like father like son, they had to make the crazy face...
After the final run, Drew wanted to "play tombstone". Goofy kid.
We had a picnic lunch under some trees, hoping to get a break from the now rain - however the wind kicked up bad and we finished our lunch in the dry warm car.
Later that night we made our way to Pizza Hut where they serve cheap beers and decent pizza.
We went back to the room and checked out the next morning. Normally we'd get one final run in at the "sledding hill", but we decided to just hit the road since we knew we were going to have a problem with the chains... and boy were we right.
We stopped in Meyers to pay them to put the chains on, and the first guy laughed at us and said you're too much a liability - go up the road to the other guys for help. So we did and they told us they will get us down the summit, but these chains were D.O.N.E. Turns out he had to make a few links and crimp them closed. We realized this as we tried to get the chains off, and had to pay to have someone cut off one of the chains.
So all of our money spent this trip went to buy the chains, pay to have them put on twice, and taken off once. Dave swore off trips to Tahoe without a rental car with snow tires. Between the storm in New York and this one in Tahoe, there's no doubt in anyone's mind we won't be moving to anywhere where this is a seasonal occurrence.
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