Day 4: Is This Seriously a Capital City?

Grimacing from sore quads and night terrors of the Sierra Mountains, our team sleep-crawled onto our bikes and rolled out of South Lake Tahoe around 9:30 this morning - much later than Moma' Claire's breakfast bell at 6:30. We took off with the expectation that today's 30-mile ride to Carson City, Nevada would be a short trek, and from our gathered topographical readings (yes, I did just say topographical in context) we surmised that the brute of it would be downhill. With Shane ahead in the Mystery Machine, the delicate view of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains was soon washed away by a beautiful gift from Mother nature: 1000 more feet of climbing spread out over 10 miles. Pushing ourselves to scale the mountain after nearly 12 hours of climbing yesterday, the only thing ameliorating the inclines was our newly purchased "Butt Cream." Add that one to the shopping list. Seriously...

Anyway, as the story goes, the indomitable Zane was the first to claw his way up the mountain, and, surrounded by unadulterated evergreens on either side, our group pulled it together and made the climb. As amends for her punishments, Lady Luck graciously gave us downhill, no-pedal riding for the last 15 miles to Carson City. Leading the charge down the Nevada side of the Sierras was Sanford with a group all time high of 44mph. However, knowing Jason and Zane's competitive nature, someone will be injured in the near future trying to break that record, and we can only hope that Shane's Indian genes will kick in to action to aid them in a quick recovery. Jai Ho!

For those of you who have been to Carson City, which I pray is very few of you, why did you come here? This bustling capital city is home to an overpopulated 50,000 people and its virtuous, historic, capital building is a few blocks down from "Casino Fandango." Seriously Carson City? Seriously? Casino Fandango? In disbelief, our group set off to find lunch and a place to stay for the night. The New Yorker managed to use his street sense and bartering skills to get us a discounted hotel room, but the Man of the Match was given to the small (not in stature) businessman from rural Toledo, Ohio who convinced the lovely staff at The Firkin & Fox Pub to give the entire team a free meal. No alcoholic drinks we're served.

After lunch our group collapsed on top of each other and took naps in the van and on our hotel beds. The day ended with a clutch purchase of a massager at Costco (from Shane to Mom: Ok, I know it is a ridiculous purchase for the credit card, but at least I was being cost effective) and a team dinner at "The Naked Fish," a sushi restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. It is rumored that Claire Fisher purchased a "Naked Fish" sweatshirt, but there has been no confirmation on that as of yet.
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