Picks and Pans – Sacramento to Markleeville, CA

On our way through Sacramento, I finally got the chance to meet Sean’s only cousin, Kate and the rest of her family (Greg, Aden and Kiersten). We had a great time hanging out with the kids, talking with Kate and Greg, playing Rock Band and looking at old family pictures with Kate and Sean’s Aunt Joyce. Hopefully, it won’t be another 8 years before the next meeting of the cousins.

Sean says: On a road trip of this proportion, you need to change your oil many times. If you find yourself in need an oil change near Sacramento, Econo Lube n’ Tube is the place to go. Super cheap to start and the guy automatically gave us a $6 discount before I even showed him my coupon. To top it off, in the brief time the mechanic had our van he noticed that the brake pedal didn’t always return all the way up on release… something we’d noticed over the last 1000 miles, but didn’t bother to mention to our oil change mechanic. Now if we can just figure out why… maybe a brake booster issue as suggested by Greg… maybe a master cylinder issue as the mechanic suggested… hmm… any thoughts from our readers?

En route to the eastern Sierras, we took yet another winding (50 to 16 to 49 to Fiddletown Road to 88 to 89), but beautiful path to our next destination. Just outside of Sacramento, the suburban development gives way to golden grass under grizzled oak trees, with the occasional vineyard dotting the dry hillsides. This quickly changed to coniferous forest and snow dusted mountains before we descended from Carson Pass into the dazzling yellow aspens along the Carson River, where we set up camp for the night.