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One of the more interesting aspects of traveling with the Hummer, other then it being able to go anywhere you have the guts to point it, is the reaction of the people that encounter it. Outside a Subway sandwich shop a young woman pushing a stroller paused to gaze at it as we walked up behind her. She then slow reached over and petted the hood and then blushed as she noticed us watching her. In a gas station in Santa Barbara, a young
boy was looking and walking around the Hummer. Then in heavy southern accent asked me "Mister, How much did you pay for this?" My usual answer is to ask the person how much they earn in a year and give the price in multiples of their salary. Clearly this was not going to work here. I told him $85,000 and he immediately grasped the concept and said, "Dang mister, that's a lot of money! How did you get all that money?"  Just driving down the street people stop in their tracks and watch the beast role by with a slack jaw and wide eyed look previously reserved for Bay Watch babes and Baseball heroes. I think that driving the Hummer in town is as close to what beautiful women must experience, as I will ever get.

We rolled through Oregon, and small bits of California and then Nevada into Reno where we spent the night. In the dark,  Reno is all lights and glitz, but in the day it's plain and industrial. One night is about the right amount of time to spend there. We had intended on going to Sun Valley Idaho, but we were running short of time before our flight to Puerto Rico. So we decided to stop in Lake Tahoe to try to get in some spring cross-country skiing. We stayed in Incline Village on the northeast shore of Lake Tahoe. Here they grow large oddly shaped mountain cabins that would make nice full time residencies.

Our first half-day of skiing took place at Diamond Peak Cross Country Ski Resort. The air was a balmy 50 degrees and the sun warm against our black merino wool tops (from New Zealand). But the altitude was over 8,000 feet so lots of heavy breathing was involved. The area has 30km of groomed trails with absolute awesome views of Lake Tahoe. Blue lake and sky are separated by a jagged edge of snowy mountains. We managed to ski about a third of the trails with out collecting too much snow on ourselves.

The next day we rose early and headed toward Truckee California to Royal Gorge Ski area where there are a mere 350km of groomed trails. The place is self-proclaimed as the "Largest Cross-Country Skiing Resort in North America". It was large, well maintained and generally impressive. The trails were more like super-highways to me. Over twenty feet wide with classic skiing tracks laid down on both sides and a skating track in the
center. We had primarily skied classic (diagonal or striding) style of cross-country, but wanted to try "skating". Skating resembles the action that ice or roller-blade skaters would use, except that your on snow and your skate is a ski about 5 feet long. So we took a group lesson, which because of the midweek timing, turned into a private instruction. Our
instructor "JP" was archetypal for this job, late twenties, tanned with good people skills. Right after introductions he dubbed us Kim1 and Kim2.

In time, we had learned the 3 basic skating steps. It almost sounds like dancing, and many respects it is. Precise coordinated foot (ski) and hand (poles) movement are necessary for efficient as well as bruise free skiing. K2 picked skating up naturally and was swishing back and forth on the practice lanes. I on the other hand, have never felt more uncoordinated and found the smallest rise a challenge. After an hour and half of tutoring, JP cut us loose to wreak havoc on the world and ourselves. We skied around with skating skis for a couple of hours, but I needed to feel competent so I traded my skating skis in for classic skis. We did not manage to ski even 10% of the trails. We wore ourselves ragged. And the last couple of kilometers found the limits of our endurance. Sore, bruised and thirsty we headed back to Incline Village first stopping in Truckee for Advil. I love drugs.

Kim and Kim