On the road to Napa

Saturday 8 September 2012 – Bring me the wine
Go Dockers!!

Day 149 and 9 days to go

I can hardly believe we are down to single digit days remaining. It is kind of hard to believe that we have been on the road since April and that our journey around this amazing globe is soon to come to an end. That being said, we are both ready to get home and back to the normality of life back in suburban Perth.

With a dark forest of pines to park under, they shaded the morning light and it was later than we thought when we finally decided to get out. We are a dab hand at the morning routine now and it wasn’t long before we were ready to move on.

Saying goodbye to our neighbours we pulled out of the park to a view of a hot air balloon sailing over Lake Tahoe. It would have been magical to have been up in it. A little down the road we stopped for fuel and then the drive began.

Today we had about three hours of driving. The first part on HWY 50 saw us leaving the Lake Tahoe Basin through the national park via the mountains again. We are becoming more accustomed to the twists and turns of these roads along with the altitude that comes with them.

Paul was envious of the number of bikes that were out on the road. There must have been some sort of run on as there were hundreds travelling towards us as we descended the mountain. There were times when I am sure he thought he was part of the pack and was attempting to speed up and find gaps. Once leaving the mountain we found ourselves once again driving through large flat meadow country as we neared California’s state capital, Sacramento.

It was here that the roads became more manic. 6 lanes of traffic and plenty of vehicles to fill the spot. We also returned to the mysterious stopped traffic that cleared again with no indication as to why it had slowed in the first place. It was giving me sweaty palms and a nervous disposition as cars cut in front of the hippo expecting her to just pull up.

By 12.30pm we had had enough and spying the familiar yellow and gold sign of the In-n-Out burger chain, we made a right off the HWY and pulled to a relieved stop. The burger joint was humming with plenty of weekend trade, mostly soccer MOMS and the entourage of hungry kids.

We ordered then grabbed the first table we could see that was vacant. Devouring the finger licking burger it record time we were done and dusted and back on the road by 1pm and driving the final 20min.

It was still busy with plenty of others also heading to Napa. We located our RV park only to find it was full and with no reservation we were sent on our way with directions to another park. Bugger!

As we approached the Skyline Park we realised it is actually a recreational park with trails and Frisbee gold that just happens to have some camping bays and they had space. Yay.

We parked up and sat back in the van having a rest and reading some of the wine paraphernalia we were given at reception deciding what to do. In the end we decided we would head to Silverado Trail where a large number of wineries are concentrated.

It was only a short drive up the road before we stopped at Luna our first winery. We entered the tasting room to be told it was $15 to do a tasting of 2 whites and 4 reds. We figured we would share the plate, but were a bit put out that we were charged for it.

We wandered the building climbing the tower to check out the view over the winery and then sitting in the lounge to finish off our next tasting. The wines were fine but nothing really outstanding.

The host gave us a few pointers on other wineries to check out and then we were back in the van and heading on to Reynolds Family down the road. Again they wanted $20 to taste and at first they weren’t going to serve us as we had no appointment. Apparently their licencing laws don’t allow for too many in the room.

This time there was only 1 white to try and Paul had the 5 reds on offer. After finishing up we figured we shouldn’t do anymore seeing he had to drive. We made our way back towards Napa downtown and seeing roads blocked off and tents out we decided to stop.

We wandered towards the river and joined the crowds walking the street. I picked up a commemorative glass for the craft and wine fair, filled with chardonnay and then we sat in the amphitheatre and listened to the band play. The female lead singer was a big woman with a blond afro, but it was when a couple got up to dance that had us really laughing.  It was quite entertaining.

We wandered the few streets checking out the overpriced art pieces that were for sale. It seems that Napa is an overpriced and pretentious place. Give me the Swan Valley any day.

When we finished wandering we returned to the van and then to the park where we set up for the night. I loaded pics and the blog while Paul checked out wineries to visit tomorrow before getting dinner organised.
After eating the cards came out once again and then it was time for bed.

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