Day 4 of Jamie's Swim Camp

Goody and I slept in a little and started getting our things together.  Our plan was to meet up with Karen Rogers at her home in Truckee and go for a swim in Lake Tahoe.  If the water at Hidden Valley wasn't contaminated, and cooler we would have stayed.  But we got a text that poor Karen, was having issues with her skin as well.  In fact she said that her red bumps were turning into blisters and that she was feeling totally miserable.

So we agreed to go anyway and swim in Lake Tahoe and camp or something.  We said our goodbyes to all of our new friends and took off.  We stopped at the Walmart to see if we could find a new "Wilson" that had a yellow stripe.  No luck.  In fact I couldn't even find anything online that looked like the original one.  

We got to Commons Beach and I ran back to the car to put our bags in there safely.  Goody was already in the water and swam out to the end of a pier and I tried to catch up.  We met back up and then swam to the other pier.  The water temp on my watch varied between 54 and 56.  It felt very cold, but not unbearable.  I ended up doing a couple pier laps and my GPS read 1.75 miles upon getting out.  

The water was so clear and looked so awesome underwater.  I though Bear Lake was awesome for that, but Lake Tahoe is way more clear and blue.  So pretty.   We had quite a group of spectators collect when we got out and an older woman came up and asked us if we were training for anything.  She could tell we were quite cold and said she didn't want to hold us up, but that she thought it was really great that we were able to go out there without wetsuits and do what we did.  It was kind of a short swim, but not too bad considering the colder temp and that we had been baking in 70+ water all week long.  We really need to get some cooler swims when we get back home!

We saw bear boxes all over, so we decided not to camp, but head to Reno and find a casino that had decent hotel rates.  The massage that I was supposed to get, and for which I had budgeted, never happened.  So I had $60 extra that I had so we decided to stay at Circus Circus in Reno.  We went to the buffet and I picked out on all sorts of great stuff.  I won a free $2 casino card at the Buffet.  I'm not a gambler, but it was kind of fun playing with it.  I didn't last long.  I won up to $3.75 and  then kept going, and lost it all.  Oh well.  I didn't end up with anything, which is how my last experience was when I first (and last time) gambled with my own money.  I'd never gamble with my own money.  Even if it's a small amount, it could get pretty addicting, and I already have tons of other addictions.  I don't need more.  

Total distance: 1.75 miles in 1:22


I had such a fun time at Jamie's Swim camp!  I met so many cool people.  I've been around lots of people in other sports:  Powerlifting, Table Tennis.  And I have never met a more accepting and approachable group of people than with Open Water Swimming.  There wasn't a single person at camp that had a bloated ego, that I could tell.  Everyone was down to earth.    The parasitic water and the warmer water temp was probably the most disappointing thing, but meeting all these classy swimmers made it all totally worth it!

Here's a video summary of the entire trip: