Belly Flops

Kacie spotted the sign:  “Free Jelly Belly Tours”.  We were still in San Francisco traffic at 9pm and the idea of circling back 20 minutes was not appealing to me at all.  However, after a good night’s sleep, I felt invincible and ready to do a belly flop back into California traffic.

A stop at Camping World for a hand proved futile, they were too busy, and so we moved onward to Fairfield.  Once at the Jelly Belly factory, we were welcomed by one of my favorite aspects of life, a Disney like snake line.  It would only be 45 minutes to discover how a Jelly Belly was actually made.

 

We were reminded of President Reagan’s love of Jelly Bellys and discovered many fun insights.  The kids were thankful for the tour and enjoyed some candy.

Then we belly flopped back on the I-80 which resembled downtown Indianapolis traffic after a Colts game.  It was only about 45 miles of traffic to Sacramento.  I finally took highway 50 out of Sacramento to approach South Tahoe.  To my enjoyment another 40 miles of traffic loomed before I entered winding, ascending roads into the Sierra’s for another 50 or so miles.  The views were incredible and then we entered the Gatlinburg like traffic of South Tahoe with no camp ground in mind.

We crept out of South Tahoe towards Reno before landing at Zephyr Cove RV Resort.  This place is awesome.  It is a 5 minute walk to the Tahoe beach and has a peaceful campsite with plenty of activity for all of the kids.  Caleb particularly likes the big boulders.

He scaled some of the biggest ones before skinning his knee on a seeming pebble.  As we explored the boulders we discovered the reality that a forest fire had swept through these parts at one time.  A conversation with a waiter explained the source of the fires, Gondola Fire.  Evidently someone tossed a cigarette butt from the Gondola and set about 40 acres on fire.

But more interesting than that was the Lizard Tail Fire.  Any guesses of the origin of that particular fire?  Supposedly a hobby of some of the bored area youths is to dip a lizard’s tail in gasoline, ignite it and watch it scamper around in the dark.  (I am fairly sure the Midwesterners who have cow-tipped have no reason to accept the condescension of westerners!)  This particular lizard ignited the forest and I am sure left some teenagers with some explaining!

The crew agreed to spend another night at this peaceful location!