You know what? This is our fourth visit to Bothe Napa SP, and I have been making a tragic error. We’ve spent time hiking, biking, generally lazing around, and that’s all been fun. But it turns out that actually going wine tasting in Napa Valley kicks up the enjoyment by a significant margin. I realize everyone else knew that, but it was a revelation for me that I thought was worth sharing.
This was yet another rainy weekend for California, so the bikes stayed home. On the plus side, the days are getting longer, and this is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, so campground arrivals are getting brighter. We chilled and binge watched “The Tudors,” to the sound of rain falling on the roof. I still love the sound, even if the season has brought a bit too much water to some communities. Saturday, the lack of pre-planned Dory lunch drove us outdoors and down the road to Gott’s Roadside. I’d never been, but apparently it is very popular, and came recommended by a friend. I had a crispy Teriyaki sandwich on an egg bread bun and it was quite tasty. I found the soft serve chocolate to be underwhelming, but Richard liked his.
Afterwards, we went on a mission to expand my familiarity with wines I see on the shelves in Trader Joe’s. We were attempting to find “Joel Gott,” but ended up at the tasting room of their parent estate, “Trinchero.” No problem, I thought, we’d just stop for a quick tasting and move on to another. Well, after a couple generous pours of their cabernet suite, from bottles hovering around a $95 price point, I was quite happy. And not in any condition to continue the mission. Good thing Richard doesn’t drink. And though I have not improved the likelihood of being able to select a good red within my price range, Richard found an app that may help. Vivino will let you take a picture of a label and spit out information on it, like its rating and suggested retail price. It also saves your ratings and labels, ultimately resulting in suggestions that are tailored to your tastes. Pretty cool.
The last thing I’ll report on is condensation. This is a normal part of winter camping, but clearing it does represent a good chunk of time in the morning when temps get below 50 at night. I have a squeegee and reusable cloths hanging in the bathroom that I use to scooch the water down all the windows and into the tracks of the window frame. From there, it all nicely channels to the outside and onto the ground at Dory’s corners. That’s usually enough, unless it’s really high humidity (like when it’s raining). Then I might need to do some additional wall wiping at the front or back. The cloths I’m using are mini Shamwows, but I literally refer to them as “sham mehs;” ok to do the job, but not thrilling enough to inspire an interjection.
Nice weekend, nice valley. Next weekend I’ll be home sulking. That was supposed to have been site 6 at Wright’s Beach, staring at ocean sunsets. Instead, I’ll probably just do chores and complain. I do have two more opportunities at Wright’s before summer, not quite as awesome at site 6, but they’d better not get cancelled!
Total miles: 65.2, 15.5 mpg, 2 hours 10 min. Site 10. No hookups, but bathroom is open and brand new. Very nice. No dump, so go to Calistoga Fairgrounds. Spotty LTE/no service for ATT, weak LTE for Verizon.
