On his first trip to California, Jeff mentioned that he wished he had made time to do some mountain biking. This year I mentioned to Jeff that if he was willing to get up at 5:30am the day after his arrival (less than 12hrs after getting off the plane) we could drive up to Lake Tahoe and catch the 9:30am shuttle and ride the Great Flume trail. Why so much effort for a mountain bike ride? Well for starters it’s the most scenic mountain bike ride on the entire planet!

That was all Jeff needed to hear. So this year’s NFL experience would begin in the most unlikely of places … high above Lake Tahoe in the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada Mountains! What better way for 2 old friends to get reacquainted! We would only see 4 other people along the entire 20mi of trail, the weather was perfect and the lake and the sky were as blue as I have ever seen them.

That evening we would gamble a little bit in the south shore casinos, place a few bets on the weekend’s football games and begin the long journey to Southern California. We chose to drive I-395 south along the eastern slopes of the Sierras and through the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. There are shorter routes south but every great road trip should involve a trip through the desert. Tomorrow we would decide if we would party in LA or Las Vegas next.