Sunday, August 24, 2008

One Week in Incline Village


View Larger Map

We've now spent a week living in Incline Village. I think I'm going to like it here. We've spent time getting the house in order but also exploring the area. I've been doing long bike rides. I did the Truckee triangle yesterday, which is a bit over 40 miles if you start and finish in Incline Village. See the map below for the route.

We've been taking the kids to the beach and short bike rides along the Lakeshore path. Jared has really learned to ride a bike this week, which is a relief. At the beginning of the week he always needed a push to get started and almost always stopped with a dramatic tossing down of the bike. Those days are over, he's semi-pro now. At least in his mind.

Yesterday we went to the Nevada State Fair. The kids had a lot of fun. A couple of the girls got sick from the rides. Not Jade, of course. She wanted to hit every crazy spinning upside down ride that she could convince her friends to go on. (And a few that they wouldn't go on). She was polite enough not to go on the ones with the really long lines, making her friends wait for her. The highlight of the evening was demolition derby. They had four heats: small trucks, big cars, women drivers, and compact cars. Cars were smashed, caught on fire, and emitted smoke of various colors. Everyone had a great time.

At the fair we met up with all the other Beguelin's in Nevada. My cousin Mark and Aunt Juana have lived in Nevada for many years. The trend continues.

The town of Incline Village is quite nice. I'm surprised at how busy it is here. I've heard that it will calm down after Labor Day Weekend. We'll have to wait and see. The people here are very nice. People spend a lot of time biking and walking the paths. They're easy to say hello and comment on the weather.

Incline Village has a few municipal beaches which are well kept but you need to pay to get in. As residents, we get a free id cards which give us access to the beaches. They also have a nice recreation center with tennis courts, an indoor pool and exercise equipment. The rec center requires an additional fee if you want to use it. The only thing missing is an indoor tennis court. Perhaps once the snow starts we'll end up spending so much time on the slopes that we won't notice that all the tennis courts are covered in snow.

The wilderness is not too far away. There are signs in our neighborhood warning of bear activity. We've found what seems to be bear scat in the yard. A lot of folks here have bear proof trash containers. I made the mistake of leaving our trash out the night before pickup. Some animal got into the cans and made a mess while snacking on our leftovers. I hope it wasn't a bear!

I've also noticed that the electricity here tends to be pretty flakey. Our power has gone off twice in the last three days. I hope this doesn't get worse with the snow. This morning the digital clocks were flashing and the wifi router was even wedged. I had to reboot it a couple of times before the wifi started working again. I wonder if anyone makes a device that can log power outages. It would have to be battery backed and have the ability to deal with electrical spikes. Hmm, might be a fun thing to build. Well, not today. Today is for yard work, bike rides, and cooking out on the grill with family and friends.