Much of the problem with our trip was the fact that the train was stalled behind a broken cargo train for an hour in there, and when that cleared, we rode through Soda Springs. I pointed out the lodge, the road and the tunnel - all places we had been together. It was at that point that I had to get the three of us off the train. The sun had just gone down and here I noted that I had left stuff in the observation car so I retrieved them.
I should’ve made a sanity check in there to make sure I didn’t lose anything. We stood in the wheelchair room until we pulled into the station (I got a great picture of Donner at twilight). I realized after we had gotten off that I had left a few things in the baggage area of the train. One of my boys was displeased with me about that since I had misplaced a book of his.
We arrived at the station at around 9:40 that night. I got the boys some popsicles and waited for the local rideshare. When they finally arrived, the driver was really nice and helpful. They knew where the Donner Campground was and helped us unload. Setting up the tent and getting the kids to bed took a long time and the summer night was actually pretty cold. I had to put in a lot of work to get our campsite together myself. The boys were really helpful though.
At 7:15 am on the day that I wrote this, I woke up on my tarp under the morning sky. I got the boys up and aired out their tent. Then I got us ready to go into Truckee. I made backpacks, collected items for the trip and put everything away. The boys ate pretzels and drank their power drinks.
We walked to the boat rentals and then to the ranger station. The boys were in good spirits. I had a can of coffee - an innovation I had discovered on previous camping trips. We had to run for the TART bus but the website was wrong by about 10 minutes, so it turned out OK. The boys took their jackets off at that point.
We first went to CVS and picked up some hats and sandals. Then we went to a sports shop, and I got a mini backpack for myself. We also went to the laundromat and I got tacos next-door because it’s impossible not to.
After that we walked to the coffee shop and the natural food store on the far side of interstate 80. We looked at the new Tahoe Truckee bike share system but the seats were too tall for the boys. I told them that we would get bikes the next time we visited. We went to Safeway and bought a lot of food before catching a bus back to the laundromat
Once we were done at the laundromat we caught the highway 89 bus to the Amtrak station and I took the boys to the pizzeria. Harry Potter was playing on the TV and the boys’ brains turned to mush. I had a salad and the boys ate pizza and we say out front enjoying the view on the main street. I took the boys to an old timey ice cream parlor – that was cool.
We caught a local Truckee bus which was on the wrong end of its route-I couldn’t even figure out how that had happened or the way it worked. When we got back to Donner State Park ranger station got tokens for the showers and then we walked to our campsite.
The boys had a late snack and then went to bed. I started writing.
This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.
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