Thanksgiving in Lake Tahoe...Germans, Car Trouble, and Fun

Bear with me; this is going to be a long one. On Tuesday Jakob, Chris and I left for Lake Tahoe to spend Thanksgiving in the mountains. We left at night after classes and wanted to drive the 11 hours straight through to be able to have as much time there as possible. I had taken my car into the shop the week before to make sure everything was ready for the long drive ahead. Despite my attempts to eliminate any problems, about three hours into the trip Gunther (my VW Jetta) decided to stop shifting. Normal? I don’t think so. We pulled over and called AAA, but soon realized that unless you need a new battery, AAA is pretty worthless. It also didn’t help that it was 10pm and no repair shops were open that could look at the car. After some debate we decided to stop and stay the night in a motel and get the car looked at in the morning. We took the nearest exit and ended up in a town called Gorman, or as I affectionately called it, serial killer town. As of 2005, there were 15 homes in Gorman and around 12 registered voters. We stopped in at the local EconoLodge where we met a wonderfully helpful lumberjack… I mean desk clerk, who checked us in to the best room available, complete with microwave and bed bugs. Surprisingly, they also had free wifi. Luckily, our new desk clerk friend knew the one mechanic in town and was able to provide his number. In the morning we headed over and learned that the computer of the car had locked us out of shifting and we just needed the code erased. Five minutes later we were back on our way. After a loooooooong drive, we made it away from the beaches of San Diego, through the desert, and into the mountains of northern California. The views heading into Tahoe were beautiful and started to make up for our night in a murder movie. 24 hours later we made it to the condo in beautiful South Shore Lake Tahoe. Along with two feet of snow and stunning mountain views, we were also met with bitter cold weather and icy stairs. Not so much fun unloading the car. The next morning, we headed into Stateline to explore the town and to figure out what we wanted to do during the week. Stateline, conveniently, has a Nevada side and a California side. The Nevada side is pretty much just a series of casinos and the California side has the ski chalets and lifts. We decided to spend the day on the Nevada side J. The boys decided to head to the Roulette games, while I went straight for the penny slots, such a big spender! By the afternoon I had doubled my money, Chris had made $40 and sadly, Jakob had lost. After our gambling adventures we headed back to the condo to start making Thanksgiving Dinner. Now, I can’t say that my attempt at Thanksgiving dinner rivaled my mothers, and it was definitely more basic than my family’s normal elaborate meal, but it wasn’t half bad. After a few hours of food comas and card games, we decided to call it a night so we could get up early the next morning for snowshoeing. Renting snow shoes turned into a huge project, dealing with several not so competent people. Eventually we had our shoes and headed down to walk along the lake. Snowshoeing is definitely not easy. I had this image of being able to glide along on the top of the snow, taking in the fresh air and sights without disappearing into the mounds of snow beneath you. Apparently, with snow shoes on you still sink and gliding through the snow takes a fair amount of technique, which I did not have. We ended up following  a trail on the way down and then ventured into the woods on the way back, for an exhausting, but wonderful trek through the summer cabin estates that were now covered in several feet of snow. The plan for the next day was skiing and snowboarding, but we woke up Saturday to even more snow that continued all day. We decided instead to take advantage of the fresh snow with some good, old fashioned, childhood fun: sledding. We found 3 saucer sleds in the closet and took off down the hill. I haven’t been sledding in years and had forgotten how fun it can be. We finished the outing with a race down the hill to the car. We wanted to put the snow chains on so that we could go into town that night. I won the race only to realize that the car lights had been left on (thank you Jakob J) and the car was now dead. Chris adequately summed up the situation by saying everything and anything that could happen to my little Jetta did. One more call to AAA and two hours later and the car was up and running with snow chains on. We once again took a trip to the casinos for a little more fun that evening on our last night. My gambling capabilities worsened and I quickly lost. I found the boys back at the Roulette games and watched, learned and, admittedly, still don’t fully understand. The guys started doing pretty well, their winnings rising. I wasn’t playing, but still found my heart racing as the numbers grew. I learned that when you bet on a color and lose you double up on that color on the next turn. With three blacks in a row the guys bet red. Another black number popped up on the screen, which meant a loss and doubling on red the next time around. This streak of black numbers continued and so did the losing. Eventually, we left the tables a little worse for wear and headed for a few more games on the slot machines. We ended up at this unbelievably stupid game called Fireball. Basically, a way to make you feel like you’re winning when you are really losing, but the game sucks you in and you can’t help following the line of fire up the screen to see what fireballs where going to explode and provide winnings. After another hour we finally decided we should head back up, the now treacherous, mountain to the condo. Amazingly, my car made it back and we prepared to leave the next morning. This involved attempting to finish all of the food we had brought/made over the last few days. No easy feat when an entire turkey is involved. The next morning we started down the mountain and were immediately hit with holiday traffic. Eventually we made it past the congestion and to the 5 only to feel the car stop shifting again and the check engine light pop back on. We were told disconnecting the battery would clear the codes so we pulled over and crossed our fingers that it would work. A few hours and four attempts to disconnect the battery later, and the problem was still not fixed. We called every auto repair shop in the area only to find that at 7pm on a Sunday, after Thanksgiving no less, they were all closed. We tried auto zone and pep boys only to find that they either couldn’t erase the code or were closed. In the end we had to drive at a speed in the gear we were stuck in, which meant driving 300 miles at 55-60 mph on interstate 5 (the speed limit is 70) after Thanksgiving when everyone is trying to get home. Needless to say, fellow drivers were not very happy with us. Another looooooooong trip later and we found ourselves 20 miles outside of San Diego. We needed gas and a bathroom break so we pulled over. When we started back up again we realized the light had turned off and magically we could shift again. I think the car Gods were playing a cruel joke on us allowing us to finally drive at a higher speed when we were only half an hour away from San Diego. Perfect timing. Maybe Gunther is partial to the San Diego weather. In the end, we made it. Muscle cramped and exhausted, but home safe and sound. From my travels abroad I learned that sometimes the most fun came when things didn’t go exactly as planned. My car troubles were definitely frustrating, but the trip was still a great time. When you have good people around you, nothing can really go wrong.