And so the latest Tour Along With Todd adventure—a six-week summer residency tour with the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival—began by enjoying an extra, and unusually rainy, July day in Boise with Natalie and Lilly, the dog. We ate food, watched movies, and went on a bike ride between deluges.
Monday morning’s drive began on time—at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. YES, that’s 7:00 a.m. in the morning! I don’t do 7:00 a.m. in the morning. But I made the exception this one time in order to beat the inevitable desert heat. The vistas were beautiful. Expansive and shrouded in crystal blue sky. “This is awesome!” I thought. I thought too soon. It turns out Heaven and Hell’s boundary is located precisely at Winnemucca, NV. Hell lingers for 189.5 miles to the summit of the Mt. Rose Highway, whereupon Heaven resumes and continues into the Lake Tahoe basin.
 |
| Oregon’s still snow-capped Steens Mountains shrouded in clouds |
 |
| Deep blue desert sky after the previous day's rains |
Hey! Here are some interesting factoids for you! While there
are extinct volcanoes in the Tahoe
area (Mt. Rose being one), the lake is not a volcanic caldera. It was actually
formed by mythical creatures (horsts and grabens) lifting up and pushing down
giant blocks of the earth’s crust! A while later, lava from Mt. Pluto dammed
the basin, resulting in the 10th deepest lake in the world! Go ahead,
fact check me!
The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (LTSF) site is located at the ever popular Sand Harbor, a petite peninsula at the NE corner of the lake. My assigned condo is at Stateline, NV, at the SE corner of the lake. More precisely, the condo is situated at the 7,344 ft. summit of Daggett Pass, 22.6 long and congested miles from the theater. What’s more, the door of the condo is 162 steps (74 of which are steps up or down stairs) from the parking area along a labyrinth of walkways perched upon slender stilts of wood. There’s little question that this baffling design was the inspiration for the unfortunate Ewok village first appearing in George Lucas’ 1983 Star Wars film Episode VI—Return of the Jedi. If this construction marvel is representative, I’m pretty sure building codes related to earthquakes are somewhat more laxed in Nevada than California, whose border is just two miles away.
The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (LTSF) site is located at the ever popular Sand Harbor, a petite peninsula at the NE corner of the lake. My assigned condo is at Stateline, NV, at the SE corner of the lake. More precisely, the condo is situated at the 7,344 ft. summit of Daggett Pass, 22.6 long and congested miles from the theater. What’s more, the door of the condo is 162 steps (74 of which are steps up or down stairs) from the parking area along a labyrinth of walkways perched upon slender stilts of wood. There’s little question that this baffling design was the inspiration for the unfortunate Ewok village first appearing in George Lucas’ 1983 Star Wars film Episode VI—Return of the Jedi. If this construction marvel is representative, I’m pretty sure building codes related to earthquakes are somewhat more laxed in Nevada than California, whose border is just two miles away.
 |
Along the Ewok Condo Walkway |
The condo itself is well appointed (the use of some imagination
is required here) and fellow LTSF company members Peter and Josh have maintained an
A+ rating from the National Roommate Association (NRA) by routinely being
absent day and night.
And so this atypical tour begins!
Coming up next? The show opens and I take a hike!
Ciao ~ Todd
And so this atypical tour begins!
Coming up next? The show opens and I take a hike!
Ciao ~ Todd
No comments:
Post a Comment