On our way to Truckee we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory. Josh was super excited... I was too, but it definitely doesn't come out in this photo!
The factory wasn't operational today but they still do the tours, except with short videos at each station. It's crazy that the entire factory is devoted to making candy!! They also had a tasting area and we both tried a bunch of different flavors... my favorite is still the buttered popcorn.
Unfortunately, we didn't do much else today. We stopped at a Starbucks for over an hour to contact five or six hosts in the Tahoe area to see if they could host us tonight. It was crazy that we were driving into a city with no idea where we would stay! I definitely planned on dipping into our hotel budget tonight, but while at a sporting goods store in Sacramento we got three phone calls! Two people said they could host us, and one of them said they couldn't. Either way, we found a place to stay tonight and tomorrow!
Since I'm the person who contacts all our hosts on the Couch Surfing website, Josh follows up with the phone calls. It is hilarious sometimes to hear him having a really awkward casual conversation with our hosts! (He agreed to post this photo... he has no shame.)
We took our time getting to Tahoe City, stopping at a few sporting goods stores to find ski pants, goggles, and a helmet for me. I only needed those three things since Morgan let me borrow all of the other stuff, like her snowboard, boots, bindings, jacket, and gloves! Josh got his board sharpened and waxed at one of the stores, and we also went grocery shopping for our lunches.
Our host for tonight, Rachel, told us to meet her at a restaurant near her house around 8 PM, after the Super Bowl, and then we would follow her to her house. We got into Tahoe City around 8:20 PM and called her to apologize, but she didn't remember that she was supposed to meet us... so she just gave us directions to her house. Her house is actually her parents vacation townhouse, and it's really nice! Rachel is a really interesting person and it was great talking to her. She grew up in San Francisco and went to Yale for two years but dropped out and then went to Humboldt State University, located in Humboldt County... the unofficial marijuana capital of California. She is definitely a hippie! She used to teach skiing and snowboarding lessons to kids and teenagers but was fired recently and just a few days ago decided to go to El Salvador, so she bought a plane ticket and leaves next week!
Rachel is going down to her friend's house in South Lake Tahoe tomorrow but doesn't have a ride back, so we decided to meet her down in South Lake on Wednesday and then we will all go skiing together at Sierra-at-Tahoe, and we will bring her back with us to Tahoe City that afternoon. The only worrisome thing is that she doesn't have a cell phone... so we will be meeting her at a bus stop in South Lake at 9 AM.
Josh and I agreed that our high for today was meeting Rachel: she is such a neat person and free spirit! Josh's low was the number of sporting goods stores that we visited trying to find my equipment... I think we visited eight different stores :( My low was also related to Rachel... even though she is definitely a hippie, I feel like she's playing with us just for her amusement; interacting with her is very strange! Josh's "ho" was how awkward he is talking to our hosts on the phone, specifically a guy who couldn't host us tonight but invited us to a party... the conversation was really long because Josh didn't know how to get off the phone! My "ho" was Josh's inability to navigate by himself... for example, I told him that we were supposed to get on to I-5. He started repeating it in German... he was saying "interstadt fünf" right as we drove passed the exit. Now I know that I need to make Josh aware of the exit as soon as it approaches!
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