Incline Village Library, Incline Village, Nevada

Up and up and up I drove. Of all the winding roads, this was the most flippy dippy of them since the trip up to Estes Park in Colorado. Incline Village is at 6350 feet, and I watched the ever increasing elevation posts with grim patience. I knew I had to get over this part to get to California, so I white knuckled my way through it.

There were respites, like when I finally saw Lake Tahoe through breaks in the thick trees. You can't really stop except in a few places, and I was dead set on reaching the library. I can see why this is a destination for the region and why it is a place I've heard of and not some random, anonymous lake on the map. It is gob-smacking gorgeous, a real head turner, and if you're not careful, you can head turn your ass off a cliff should you look too long.

Once in the higher elevations, the whole route is riddled with tourist resources, from ye olde log cabin restaurants, to ye old log cabin motels, to ye olde log cabin jet ski rentals. It's fabulous.

Incline Village has tourist trappings as well, but it is more of a real town than a tourist town, with many homes built up and down the precarious mountainsides all the way down to the water. It's an affluent, woodsy area, well grown in and insulated from the oogy old world. It's lovely, but I felt a bit out of place there, like I would need a 24k gold shoehorn to fit in to its tight, tidy borders.

As sick as I felt at that point, nothing could stop me from adoring the Incline Village Library. It was exactly what I'd expected when I researched it months ago. More log cabin meets modern marvels, but with homey touches in between and an eye toward the arts and culture moneyed peoples so admire.

I knew I wasn't going to stay for long--I'd already decided that my next move would be to find a decently priced hotel and ride out whatever bacterial/viral storm was currently knocking my head into a virtual snotwall until the bitter end. I took pictures as I strolled through, wistful that I couldn't set up shop since there were so many places (with so many fantastic views) to do so.

I made one trip around, then headed back out to the parking lot to figure out what next. I touched as little as possible, knowing full well that whatever was riding my immune system was likely picked up in a public space like this one...tony as it might have been, you can't outclass a good, solid bug.