Too Many Magazines! For us every trip is a learning experience. This trip was no different. The lesson is an interesting one: towards somewhere doesn't mean near it! To be exact, towards Downieville doesn't mean Downieville is right there. In this case it was almost 60 miles away, 60 miles of twisty turny road! Doh!

Another realization was that Assana gets too many travel magazines! Here's the deal: I read an article about Downieville in - I don't even remember which magazine - around the same time we decide to go visit Sunset's Idea House in Truckee. The confusion comes in when Sunset's directions had a little arrow towards Downieville. My brain thinks the whole "visit Downieville" article was part of Sunset's! So I make plans for us to stay at Downieville before visiting the Idea House.

The Idea House The Truckee Idea House is great... one of my favorites. The emphasis is recycling and they have done a great job hauling recycled lumber from all over the west to build it. Draw backs are that the rooms are so crooked and small: with so much land, why? And Dan can't stand up straight in the guest bathroom because the roof is so low. True that it was nice to have a low profile house, but this is a bit too low! We have lunch and coffee in Truckee's historic town before heading back to Downieville.

So Long Downieville is cute. A tiny town in the Sierras, and a big mountain biking hub. But if you are not a mountain biker, well, there's nothing to do. We decide to leave a day early. Can't find the hotel people so we end up leaving them a note with our key:
"Dear hotel people: We are bored so we are leaving you. It's not you. It's us. So long!"