We awoke in Lakeview to the sound of trucks rumbling past our hotel window. We went to bed knowing that we were in a corner room closest to the intersection so it wasn’t a complete surprise. The thing that was a surprise was just how comfortable the Tempurpedic mattress was. When we were looking for mattresses a long while back we’d avoided them because Angie read something about them “canoeing” in the middle, but last night may have just changed her mind. Anyway, completely off topic. Back to the road report.
After having our complementary breakfast we hit the road heading out towards Susanville. Maybe it was the good nights sleep (again with the mattress!), or that the route was a whole heck of a lot more pleasant to ride, but it was a good day. We essentially followed US Route 395 south to CA Route 139 and took that down into Susanville. The road was just the right amount of twisty, the right amount of flat, and the right amount of hills.
On our way south we had to go through the CA fruit embargo. We were both carrying contraband apples from OR so we were ready to leap into action should we be stopped and questioned. I’d planned to toss my apple to Angie and hold the fruit police at bay while she destroyed the evidence. However, the fruit police didn’t stop us and merely waved us through. So much for the fruit outlaw myth I was hoping to create.
We stopped in Alturas for a quick bite at the donut shop I saw the last time we were there, and it turned out to be a great idea. However, as we were wrapping up the county Sheriff came in for some donuts (no cliche there). Were we busted!? Angie had gone to the restroom, so I was left on my own with the contraband. What to do? He gave me the stink eye as he left with his three glazed donuts, and I tried not to meet his stare. But damn! He was out in the parking lot as we left. Gingerly leaving, and making sure not to look overly suspicious we left the parking lot without a police tail.
Back on the road we hurtled along. As mentioned above CA Route 139 is pretty cool, albeit in need of some repair. After a long while on the road we stopped in a turn out to eat the evidence against us. While we were pulled off we took a bunch of arty pictures that we’ll frame.
After arriving in Susanville it was hellishly hot, mid-80’s by one estimate at on a bank’s sign. We left the bikes behind and decided to walk into the “Historic District” which I was hoping had some neat shops, etc. First, the scale on the map in the hotel room is wildly inaccurate. It was easily a fortyfive minute walk there, and the sun was blazing down on us. After the march the shops fell into one of three categories: not interested (barbers, yoga, etc), closed, or for sale/empty. So back we trudged. The one highlight of that excursion was we stopped at the trail head for a rails-to-trails convert. The guy at the museum gave us some water and left us on our own to learn about the railroad history of the town.
When we arrived back at the hotel after dinner we got a super tip from a bicyclist on heading out to the coast via CA Route 299. Looking it up on the map it looks like curve heaven. Totally going to try and work that into the plan later on this week.
Not yet done with the day we headed across the street for two games of bowling at a mini-bowling center (only ten lanes). The first lane we were on the ball return belt kept hopping out of the pinsetter. The staff moved us to another lane, but that didn’t have a full complement of pins so every third frame we needed to hit the reset button. This was the first time in a non-Brunswick house in years and years (think High School). So the experience was pretty disappointing.