Into California

It’s been quite a week.  We started the week by visiting our friends at Scio, OR which is not far from Salem, OR.  The visit was wonderful, although it started a little tenuous.  It was hard to imagine why their mailbox would pop out and bite us – but it did and it is still up for debate whether it was the mailbox or the driver.  The end result was a boo-boo which we are trying to decide the best way to mask it.  We truly enjoyed visiting with Ken and Joanne, who after many years on the road, decided to put down roots and bought a beautiful acreage and home.  While there we toured the area which has beautiful countryside, a number of covered bridges, and great scenery.  The area is home to many Christmas tree farmers. We were fortunate enough to see how they transport them from the farm.  The trees are bundled and a small helicopter comes, picks them up, expertly swings them so they land in a truck – quite the sight.  There are also a number of covered bridges in the area which we got to see.

We hit the road in some fog and headed toward the coast.  As we travelled, the fog slowly cleared and we had a great travel day.  The drive was lovely but a couple of things happened – there weren’t many times that we were right along the coast and could see the ocean without driving into a park, and we had actually travelled that coast back in ’93. 

We decided that we would further south a little quicker and went back inland.  Another very scenic drive! We even got to see some turkeys (other than the one in the driver's seat)!!

Since there aren’t a lot of highways running north and south, we took Interstate 5 – probably the most scenic interstate that we have every travelled.  We passed Mount Shasta

and crossed Shasta Lake – wow

.  And they have some of the nicest rest areas.  As we pulled into one Gerry said “I smell antifreeze” and I said “So do I”.  We stopped and yup, we smelled antifreeze alright – as it poured out of the bottom of the heater core.  So under the rig Gerry goes and finds a couple of shut-off valves – closed them both and our problem seemed to be solved – hopefully until we get home.  We decided that the weather will be nice enough that we can get by without a heater and we can manage.

As always, as we travel along we look to see where a likely spot would be to spend the night.  We came across a little town in California – Colusa which had a casino – often a good overnight spot.  The first thing we do is go in and ask permission, and then we get a club card – jackpot.  They offered us each $25 in free play plus $10 off supper at the steak house.  The special just happened to be Prime rib and lobster for 19.99.  We played our free cash and ended up with $10.00 each – enough for supper.  The meal was excellent and the staff were very nice and friendly.  What a great way so spend a few hours and the only cost was for the tip!!  The next morning we went for a walk to discover the there were walnut orchards.  We filled our pockets with walnuts that had fallen into the ditch and our pockets were deep.  We ended up with a couple of pounds of shelled, fresh walnuts.

Next stop is Napa Valley for a few days and some great weather. 

We had booked a campsite – at the bottom of a canyon so no cell service and no internet.  Just an inconvenience since we have become so used to access to the internet on a constant basis.  We head out daily so will just do what we have to do at that time.

Our sample

My favourite

A view of Napa Valley

Grape vines

We spent the past couple of days touring both Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley – both known for the vineyards and wineries. 

Pomegranite tree

Pure Bliss

Many of the wineries that have tours are like large beautiful estates – great to see but one can only sample so much wine and still drive.  We did one tour and the wine we sampled was super – I really enjoyed that one.  The others were so-so, in my opinion.  Seeing that I am such a great connoisseur of wine and only like sweet, light, fruity wines that you can buy in the stores for $4.00!!   We also stopped and had lunch at the Culinary Institute of America and then stayed for a demonstration by one of the chefs – quite entertaining.  Afterwards we got to taste what was made.  We also got to watch as they were making test batches for Ghiradelli chocolates.  It was great fun.  One more wine and cheese tasting today and then on to another spot tomorrow.

We have had a fun week and I hope you have enjoyed our week with us.  Have a great week!!