Frozen Music, the Choral Novel, Chapter Seventeen: The Magic Quarter

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 Seventeen

Tuesday

Divertimento

So today I am flying through 49er country, west on 120 out of Yosemite. The names are great: Chinese Camp, Angels Camp, Murphys, Arnold, north on 89 through Markleeville, and up to Lake Tahoe. I can’t resist the casinos of South Lake, so I stop and spend hours losing a hundred bucks on the slots. I hand my ticket to the cashier, who gives me ten dollars and a single quarter, a terribly bright state quarter with Connecticut’s big tree, the Charter Oak, on the back. This seems somehow germane to my quest, so I slip it behind my driver’s license and save it for later.

I hike to the High Sierra for a cheap dinner (T-bone steak and mashed taters for $9.99), get back into my car and leave the evil state of Nevada, up the west side of Tahoe, watching the lights skim over the lake like waterbugs. Once I get to Truckee, I find an agreeable roadside motel, the EZ-Snooze, and bed down for the night.

Photo by MJV