Restaurant Owner In Bishop Treats His Customers With Respect Through His Chairs

Below are some pretty Yosemite photos, which I took this afternoon after a full morning of biking 17 miles all up the mountain outside Bishop (about 60 miles south of Yosemite).

But today's highlight was a 4:30 p.m. visit to the Petite Pantry restaurant on the outskirts of Bishop, based on a recommendation by Bruce the motel owner.

It's the tale of the restaurant chairs.

Besides serving a tasty sauteed carnitas dish with a scrumptious beef and vegetable soup and kickass salsa, owner Jay Jimenez has only reclining cushion office chairs at the restaurant on US 395. Here's Jay's son posing with the chairs.

Jay came up with the office chair idea because he has customers who use wheelchairs, so he decided to have a worker meet the wheelchair customer out in the parking lot with the rolling office chair and then wheel them in for a meal.

And to make the customer feel like the wheelchair is no issue, Jay has ALL the customers sit in the black, cushion office chairs.

And that, my friends, is my Sierras story of the day.

Serene Beauty of the Sierras

After a hectic day of bicycling around Lake Tahoe, I relaxed with the serene and quietness of the Sierras along the US 395 corridor from Carson City to Bishop.

The landscape was a bit obscured by the smokey haze of wildfires.

But I did find time to squeeze in a trio of bicycle rides -- a 22-miler in the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area, an easy 10-miler around Bishop and a 20-miler from Bishop to Big Pine and back. Here's  a great view of California 120 about 10 miles east of US 395.

I really like Bishop. It's an old-timey, throwback Sierra mountain city with retro motels, mom-and-pop stores on Main Street and a touch of funk.

There's a JC Penney store on Main Street -- you don't see that anymore. The local grocery is Bi Rite and it's also on the main drag a block from the main intersection in Bishop. A world-famous bakery called Erick Schat's Bakkery is another Maon Street anchor. And I thought this photo was a fun -- here's an art gallery and a book shop next to a meat market and a gun/ammo store.

The police station had a mural that paid homage to the good ol' days of the West..

And I grabbed a burger at this joint.

Check out the drive through action at the Burger Barn.

I love trying out the small, indy motels. Tonight, I;'m at a place called The Trees, with gorgeous wooden paneling in the rooms

The friendly motel manager, Bruce, a retired California Highway trooper showed me the collection of foreign coins donated by his many international guests. More than 35 different national coins are on display in the office, with one Vietnamese guest leaving a paper bill since she didn't have a coin.

If you're in Bishop, stay at this place.

Lake Tahoe's Stunning Beauty - And Its Other Issues

Today I had a first date with cycling around Lake Tahoe, a stunning beauty of a mountain lake in Nevada and California.

It was a 75.04-mile roller-coaster of a memorable ride with elevation gain of 4,225 feet.

Those are the numbers.

But bicycling, for me, is about emotions, aesthetics and inspiration.

And the Lake Tahoe ride was about The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

I had mixed emotions about the Lake Tahoe ride. It was like going out on a first date with a beautiful woman with some issues.

The Good

Let's face it -- Lake Tahoe is a watery looker amid amazing pines and the rugged Sierras. The vistas are spectacular. It's the ultimate sky lake. And because the route is a roller-coaster, I saw the lake from different angles.

Emerald Bay was mesmerizing, and California 89 was a rugged, twisty road that forced me to grind out challenging climbs with a hairpin turn thrown in. But it was worth it to see the inlet off the lake with the appropriate name..

And amid all this natural beauty, I met Pete, who was celebrating his 77th birthday with a 32-mile bike ride with 37 other senior cyclists.

The Bad

Hell, I know it was the day after a Monday holiday.

But the traffic and cars took a lot away from the bicycle experience.

I realize Lake Tahoe is an amazing natural resource and everyone wants to see a piece of it.

But there were so many cars going so fast. I started on U.S. 50, which is a four-lane road with cars and trucks whizzing by my left shoulder going 60 mph.

The shoulder on U.S. 50 came and went, the vehicles were going so fast at 65 mph that it was unsafe for me to take a lane when cars and trucks fly at those speeds.

The road conditions were a mixed bag on California 89 and 28, the roads that went around the lake.

Sometimes there were nice bike lanes. Sometime, no bike lanes. And I was surprised the speed limit on this narrow, two-lane road was 55 mph. Every time I would soak up a gorgeous natural scene it was blown up by three or four cars and trucks whizzing by my left shoulder at high speeds.

On the lake's west side, there was a paved off-road trail that inexperienced and casual bicyclists were using. But it must have crossed the road a half-dozen times as it meandered its way along the road.

The Ugly

Most of the small villages along the lake route were pleasant. Tahoma, Tahoe City and Kings Beach come to mind.

But the monstrosity of South Lake Tahoe, an overbuilt, suburby-style city that began with giant casinos like Harrahs at the Nevada-California border that were completely out of scale for beautiful Lake Tahoe.

All the commercial development and all the cars were a jolt and seemed so out of place.

I found South Lake Tahoe weird, too.

Check out this bicyclist coming right at me in salmon-fashion.

Lake Tahoe is so gorgeous and majestic that big casinos and sprawl-like commercial development are no way to respect this mountain gem.

Returning To Carson City For An Uphill Ride To Lake Tahoe

It was 32 years ago when I biked a heavy Schwinn LeTour with lots of gear across the country and I will never forget the climb out of Carson City on U.S. 50 to Lake Tahoe and then to Sacramento and San Francisco.

Today, for the first time in more than three decades, I returned to Carson City for a repeat performance of pedaling some eight miles with a six percent grade up to Spooner Peak at about 7,200 feet.

I have a nice light carbon bicycle with silky gear-changing parts -- a big difference from the Schwinn LeTour and the heavy red pannier bags and front bag from 1983.

Saw a sign on US 50 while heading up the mountain that also applies to bicyclists.

About four miles up the mountain I saw a little hint of Burning Man, which ended today.

I turned around at Tahoe and sped back to Carson City. What a view.

And let's say adios to good ol' Austin, Nevada, which had a restaurants with a certain political leaning.

Pure Landscape With A Few Towns Along The Way

No billboards. Only a few small villages with high desert grasses in between eight summit passes in the 7,500 foot range.

U.S. 50 cuts Nevada in half, cutting a nature-only swath from Utah to California,

You want some alone time and some peace and quiet? Drive U.S. 50 from one side of the state to the other. Some guy dubbed it, "The loneliest road in America."

And the small towns like Ely, Eureka and Austin ran with this loneliest theme. About 70 miles of desert scrub and some scenic national forest passes separate the settlements.

This morning, I started on U.S. 50's eastern side in Nevada at Great Basin National Park. I shared some of the scenic views along the Wheeler Peak scenic drive, which climbs from about 6,700 feet to nearly 10,200 feet.

By afternoon, I was ready for the Lehman Caves tour -- made enjoyable by a veteran ranger by the name of Ranger Dick (reak name, not being snarky) who was a fine schmoozemeister and joketeller. He was in great Seinfeld mode for the hour tour, delivering yarns like the one big area in the cave being a speakeasy and a party hangout for a men's club from Ely. .

There were 21 of us on the tour, including about five kids who loved the part when Ranger Dick shut off the lights to show how dark it was in there.

As the story goes, some guy named Lehman and his horse stumbled upon a hole in the ground where a blast of cold air shot out while he was looking for gold in the area. He marketed the caves in 1885 for a buck per tour and the rest is cave history.

It's living art and the forms are amazing.

After the tour, I drove in the late affternoon and early evening list to Austin, where I had a reservation at the Cozy Miountain Motel. Cindy the owner was great, and she takes her sweet motel very seriously.

She ended up giving me a room with two queen beds, with the second room actually three steps down from the first room. Lovely quilted covers adedd a nice touch. I highly recommend Cozy Mountain Motel.

It's gorgeous fall-like weather here now. Super cool in the morning with temps in the 40s, with mid 70s later after the sun gets higher in the sky.

Wheeling It Up To Wheeler Peak At Great Basin National Park

Great Basin National Park doesn't grab the national park marquee like Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Zion. But it's home to Lehman Caves and Wheeler Peak, which soars more 13,000 feet into the air and has no entry fee. It's a solid 4 1/2 hours north and a little east of Las Vegas, near the Utah state line.

The first signs of fall are here. A few leaves are changing color. It was a crisp 55 degrees in the morning, when I began grinding out 3,500 feet of elevation gain over 10 miles thanks to a challenging eight percent grafe on the Wheeler Peak scenic road.

The color and mountainous landscape kept me mesmerized as I slowly grinded up the mountain as a tortoise-like 4 to 5 miles per hour.

Great Basin is more isolated than most national parks. But attendance is growing. A friendly ranger at the counter said attendance was 107,000 in 2014 and is projected to hit 125,000 for 2015.

Wheeler Peak and the Lehman Caves are the star attractions.

Selfie at the 10,000 foot sign on the way to 10,131 feet high.

Las Vegas Bicycles Unite To Remember Matt And Advocate For Road Safety

It's really a simple thought. If you're driving a car and see a bicyclist, slow down, wait until it's safe to pass and go on your merry way.

But when eight bicyclists are killed by motorists in Las Vegas in the first eight months of 2015, it's time for bicyclists to unite and speak up and speak out.

Regrettably, it often takes a death of someone who is just like yourself to spark a movement. And when bicyclist and tour leader Matthew Hunt died Aug. 9, six days after being struck from behind by a motorist on the Strip, bicyclists began coming together

More than 400 bicyclists pedaled in Summerlin to the Red Rock Canyon overlook this morning to make a statement before returning to the Lifetime Fitness facility around 9 a.m. for a rally.

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Matt's wife and family were at the rally, and hundreds of bicyclists were with them to pledge that they will be alert and safe on our roads. Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jennifer Robison did a great job on the coverage of today's bicycle rally.

Bigs news emerged when Ron Floth, a bicycle outreach coordinator with the Regeional Transportation Commission, told the crowd that Metro Police will be cracking down on motorists who do not pass bicyclists by the minimum berth of three feet in October.

Police will go undercover on bicycles at four locations and will pull over motorists who violate the three-foot buffer law.

They will be given warnings and slips of paper explaining they must pass a bicyclist by three feet and also move over one lane much like passing a police car on the shoulder of a highway.

    

Kudos to Pat Treichel of Lifetime for pulling together the rally and ride, Keely Brooks of the Southern Nevada Bicycle Coalition for her organizing efforts and Ron Floth of RTC for sharing the word about the Metro Police crackdown on three-foot buffer violators.