too many words by laura lemay

vaca report #2: loud people

Even though the death ride is in Markleeville, we stay in South Lake Tahoe because we like the city and Lake Tahoe is beautiful. Unfortunately, because of the proximity of South Lake Tahoe to the Nevada border and thus legal gambling, South Lake Tahoe attracts a party crowd, and we seem to have a lot of trouble with really loud people in adjoining hotel rooms.

Last year it was the clog dancers in the room upstairs. The clog dancers arrived in the room above us around two in the morning, and then stomped back and forth across the floor. At first I thought that they were just removing shoes and dropping them on the floor, but after nine shoes I vetoed that idea. Next I thought OK, surely these people can’t walk across the floor forever. Surely they will go to bed soon. But no. There was a Riverdance performance going on in the room upstairs, and Riverdance goes on for what, two and a half hours?

This year we we smart: we stayed on the second floor. We were even at the end of the hall so we thought we might be OK. And then at 2:15AM the couple next door came home.

2:15AM seems to be the magic witching hour for loudness in Tahoe. There’s a good reason for this: last call at the bars is at 2AM. You could, I suppose, stay at the casino and gamble for the entire night (the casinos are open 24 hours. Why bother closing when they can successfully take your money all day AND night?), but speaking as a former drunk I understand that after they cut off your alcohol it just isn’t any fun anymore. You might as well just go home.

After the couple next door arrived they seemed to be having some kind of trouble with the door and managed to shut it loudly not once but four times. After that I fell back asleep but Eric, who can hear noises beyond the scope of most dogs, stayed awake as the couple next door viciously insulted each other for the better part of an hour. Yeesh.

Next year, we sleep in the car.