Join the adventures of Gerry Barnes and friends including their near-death experience with an Elvis impersonator in a pink jumpsuit and purple rhinestone boots.

Gerry’s Top 10 Highlights of the Great Western Trek of 2008

- by Gerry Barnes

Because so much was accomplished and so much fun was compacted into our too-short idyll, it seems a bit prosaic to merely list who did what when and where. Instead, I have opted to list – in ascending order - the Top 10 Highlights of the Great Western Trek of 2008. Here are numbers ten through six.

To anyone seeking unlimited enjoyment on a limited budget, I highly recommend checking out the following.

#10 Game World at the Horizon Casino Resort in South Lake Tahoe

Okay. This is a peculiar choice for someone who thinks that pumping quarters into coin slots in order to blow off zombies’ heads with a plastic laser gun is insipid – but this was a hands-down favorite of the rest of my party … so I was out-voted. Mark, Nathan and I spent long hours and mucho dinero in this place.

Actually, while I sat bored to tears (for none of us were actually gamblers), father and son saved several universes from giant asteroids, went downhill skiing across six or seven continents, and rescued numerous blonde babes in bikinis from marauding vampires. Forget the slots: this was where the action was! The place was packed! Wall-to-wall pubescents were screaming and running around and jumping up-and-down and emptying their parents’ wallets faster than poor old mom could say, “Get me the hell out of here!” I spied a fair number of dads muscling their hyper tykes out of the way in order to shoot down a space alien or two themselves, but to me, the place felt like Dave n’ Buster’s on crystal meth.

No doubt it was paradise for the teen-and-under set (and the paunchy 40-somethings who just felt that way), but I thought that the best part of the Casino was the Car Show in its parking lot. In fact, this is where I met the love of my life: a regimental red 1938 two door Ford coupe with the original flathead V8 and 3 speed in the floor. Just stunning. It was also at this casino’s movie theatre that I saw Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, and I’m willing to give the Horizon a few points for this alone.

But the real highlight of this attraction came when we mistakenly drove into the Casino’s exit lane and came within a hair’s breadth of deep-sixing an Elvis impersonator in a pink jumpsuit and purple rhinestone boots. Holy Homicide! Not even Batman could beat that!

Horizon Casino Resort, Lake Tahoe: 1-800-648-3322

#9 Eagle Lake, Hwy 89 at Emerald Bay, South Lake Tahoe (1-888-434-1262)

A two-mile/1 hour round-trip hike that is simply not to be missed. The trek to the Lake and back takes visitors over Roaring Eagle Creek and past huge granite crags to the most spectacular alpine retreat in the Desolation Wilderness. Once over the steel footbridge at Eagle Falls, the terrain varies from very steep to very flat as the path wends through dense forest. It’s only moderately difficult, though, and it’s for very good reason that this shady hike is one of the most popular in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Lake’s sea-green waters are enchanting and surprisingly warm. Despite the crowds, this scenic walk is definitely well worth the effort.

#8 The Bike Ride along Highway 89, South Lake Tahoe

Another popular tourist venture, the pedal along the Lake side of Highway 89 is not at all strenuous for the path is paved and both bicycles and helmets can be rented – for $9.00 an hour – at Anderson’s Bike Rental (Hwy 89 at 13th Street; 530-541-0500) which sits at the head of the 10 mile long Forest Bicycle Trail. The ride to Emerald Bay takes you through pine forests that are intoxicating to both sight and smell.

Along the way, bikers pass two beaches, a mountain stream, the Forest Service Visitor Center (where you can buy Smokey the Bear dolls in three different sizes) and the beautifully restored Baldwin Estate. (It was here that, believe it or not, I actually met a docent from my one-horse hometown 3000 miles distant! Talk about a small world!) A must-do for both senior citizens and families with youngsters, this ride is really a delight for all and should be a part of any visitor’s agenda.

#7 tahoeposters.com

For those of you who are wondering why an art website is posted on a list of travel destinations, let me explain. It was in (of all places!) a McDonalds restaurant in North Lake Tahoe that I came across the work of Tahoe-based artist Paul Bailey and immediately fell in love with his vintage 1930’s-1940’s style posters. The brilliant colors, the vivid dapples of sunlight, the wholesome outdoorsy attitude of his work – these captured my heart and I highly recommend checking out this website. Being a winter person myself, my favorite pieces are Rock Climbing, Lake Tahoe Climber, Sleigh Ride and Lake Tahoe Cable Car. But Mister Bailey has something for everyone and just one look will convince you that this is an artist of immense and rare ability.

#6 Bahooka Lounge

I adore this place. For those of us who are old enough to remember – and revel in - the tiki craze of the late 50’s/early 60’s - who still dream of Connie Stevens sitting under a paper palm tree in the Aloha Hut Lounge, sipping something tropical and laughing with Poncie Ponce – this place is an absolute expressway to our past. It’s like every old artifact from Hawaiian Eye, Adventures in Paradise and Gilligan’s Island was spirited away to the bamboo ceilings and walls of this LA area restaurant.

It’s dark, it’s exotic, and it has plastic parrots, carved tikis, Polynesian tribal masks, iron anchors and glass floats by the score. It has Hawaiian music playing softly in the background. It has thousands of tropical fish in hundreds of tanks, including an ancient Pacu piranha that eats carrots (and for all I know, natives.) It has drinks for kids that come in goblets shaped like goldfish bowls and are served aflame. It has drinks for adults that are blue and served with paper umbrellas and pineapple slices that will lay you flat under the table before you can say “sweet Leilani”. All that’s missing is the faux rainstorm and the feathered birds singing “In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room…”

Once as common as table salt, tiki bars are a real rarity today and that’s a crying shame. The wonder that I felt 45 years ago on first entering the old Kona Kai on Philadelphia’s City Line Avenue is reflected in the eyes of every child who walks through the door of Bahooka. The place has been in operation for decades and it’s something of a legend among the relatively few remaining tiki bars. Its food is tasty and affordably priced (the ribs are a must-do), its wait staff is the friendliest in the LA area, and its atmosphere is unparalleled: a never-never-fantasyland version of the South Pacific without the typhoons, mosquitoes and malaria. Check it out – and while you’re at it, pick up a Bahooka T-shirt. They’re to die for.

The Bahooka Lounge: 4501 Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead, CA; 626-285-1241

Stay tuned for Part Three!