Beautiful California

One last picture before I split off from Robert and DeeDee

Today was such a wonderful day. I've been traveling around this state, California, my entire life...since I was born here. But today was just perfect. The weather was cool when we left Sierra Madre at 5:30 in the morning. In fact, we had to keep our coats or sweaters on most of the day. After saying good bye to DeeDee and Robert; Tim, Nikki and I headed west on the 210 and then north on Interstate 5. We made great time and avoided all the traffic delays. (I love going over the grapevine) California is such an amazing state when it comes to it's landscape. Yesterday we were in the unforgiving desolation of the Mojave Desert, and today we were traveling through the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains, then north past San Francisco Bay and into Napa Valley.

The texture on the mountains was so vibrant and real, they looked like soft rolling mounds of tan and golden velvet. I took one picture that came out pretty good and shows what I was seeing.


There must be some type of war going on over water in this part of California because there were signs all along the highway about Congress turning the area into a dust bowl. It was fascinating because for hundreds of miles the hills and fields were covered with this golden grass. I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite songs, "Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy. (my dad loved that song too) The deep green orchards, vineyards and crops were a stark contrast to the tan and gold fields and hills.

The smells in the farming area's were strong, of assorted crops. The sweet onions and garlic were the most potent...besides the smells from the few livestock feeding lots. There was also the smell of hay and alfalfa, which was being harvested. I was fascinated by how much work it is, and the coordination needed to harvest all the crops grown across this Country. It is harvest time for those small, oval shaped, tomato's. I must have passed a hundred tractor trailers moving those tomato's from the fields to some plan north on Interstate 5.

When we got farther north we crossed over the mountains into the Oakland area. As we were passing through the mountain range we went by a huge wind farm. We really got beat up in the wind through that pass, it was as rough as I've experienced on a motorcycle. Once we got through the pass we had a great, but brief, view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.


We decided to go through Napa Valley, absolutely one of my favorite places on earth. The drive through the valley alone is worth it, but we decided to make a stop at Rubicon. What a great experience we had, they treated us like royalty and the wine was outstanding. Since I've had the opportunity to visit Napa a number of times, I'll throw in a pitch for a few of my favorite spots. For wineries I highly recommend Rubicon, Krupp Brothers and Del Dotto. To eat, Coles is my favorite but I also love the Culinary Institute of America. To stay, the Silverado is nice, but the Del Dotto cottage on vineyard 887 is tops in my book. So many great memories in this area. I'll give one last pitch, there is a new wine coming out from Wellspring called Vintessa. It should be bottled this month, and I'd say it's one of the best wines to come out of Napa in a long time. It was crafted by a group of Texans using some of the most sought afters grapes from an area in Napa called Atlas Peak. You can get in a pre order for this wine at Landon Winery in downtown McKinney, try it, you won't be disappointed.


After we were done at Rubicon we continued north on highway 29 then a great, tree covered, twisty road, highway 128 out of Calistoga to the 101. We made it as far as Ukiah and needed to stop for the night. It was a beautiful day of exploring California and I'm really looking forward to our coastal drive tomorrow. Have a great night...talk with you tomorrow.