Bothe Napa (11)

In trying times, it is hard to blog about the mundane. And holy shit, these times be trying. But along with all of the horrible news, I have also seen good advice. One theme is to steadfastly commit to joy wherever you can. The other is to not speak words of despair out loud. These both resonate with me. Though I know despair is hanging in the air all around me, penetrating thoughts and spirits in small, or very large, waves, I will endeavor to keep those thoughts quiet in my head and not give voice to them. When we let those words of doom get out, we throw a little more water onto others who may be frantically treading with all their might. I saw someone post that she was really struggling and could someone please say something hopeful to help her hang on? So many people did the opposite. I mean, I get it. But seriously, stop it. I’d rather be Captain Kirk slapped out of it than hear someone tell me it’s game over dude. Like when Spock was crying in “Naked Time” because everyone got a virus that made them drunk. “Snap out of it man! The ship is going to crash!!” Slappity slappity! And it pissed Spock off so much that he stopped crying, invented a matter-anti matter mix that cold started the engine, saved the ship, and sent them back in time three days. That kind of energy would be much more helpful. So I guess be careful if you come at me with doom. And when I’m not busy slapping it up, I will go ahead and post about my mundane weekend. Because it was lovely.

We watched the weather closely as the weekend approached. This was a four day weekend that included Valentine’s Day, and we were both really looking forward to it. Rain was projected until just a couple of days beforehand. Then it looked like it was going to be clear for at least Saturday and Sunday, so we kept the reservation. We had all day Friday to leisurely pack and head out. There were blue skies and time left in the day to take a walk along the newly paved Napa Valley Vine Trail. This has been a long term project that eventually aims to connect the whole of the valley, all the way down to Vallejo. Some of it goes along train tracks, while parts parallel Highway 29, ending in Calistoga.

We passed by Sterling Vineyards along the way and delighted at all the sheep casually mowing the weeds in between the vines. Sterling sits atop a big hill and uses a flying gondola system to take guests up to the tasting rooms. I’ve done that before and it is loads of fun. It’s not cheap though, so we skipped it this visit.

It was chilly and we got back to Dory excited to turn on the heater. To our alarm, the Truma showed another damn error message. Nooooo! Panic ensued for the next 20 minutes while we tried things. Nothing was working and we feared we might have to pull out the watering can and boil water for showers. Luckily, a thought dawned on me to check the tiny black rocker switch on top of the unit. This is something we would never ever touch, given it turns off the propane and is hard to reach under the cabinet. Sure enough, that was it! We camped in Dory in the garage last weekend and our cat hung out with us and explored. We figure he must have flipped the switch while he was rummaging around in all the nooks and crannies. Crisis averted and warm coziness was achieved.

The next day we biked up to Calistoga and walked around. Part of the trail had flooded, but there was an easy detour. We noted that drainage of the trail seems to have been an afterthought, as there were many parts covered with runoff or mud. It seems like a long project, involving lots of people, so maybe they are learning as they go. We had amazing ice cream at the Calistoga Creamery. I had lemon cookie on a waffle cone and it was delish.

As there was still daylight, we rode back down to the park and continued the other direction, to St. Helena. Both are very cute towns, with lots of places to eat and shop. Between the two, St. Helena is busier with people and its main drag is more compacted. Both offer a wide variety of ethnic restaurants and sweets shops, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

On Sunday we drove down to the town of Napa. We had an errand to pick up art supplies at Michael’s and Napa is a full grown city with big stores on the outskirts and a cute touristy downtown by the river. We parked at Kennedy Park and walked about three miles along the River Trail. We got ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, walked around, got a mini chocolate cupcake at the Oxbow Market, and strolled back to the car.

We had really delicious Blue Apron recreations, one involving seared steaks with asparagus, and cheesy biscuits. Biscuits cook up in the Omnia, but they don’t get that browned top like in a regular oven. We also had a shrimp and udon noodle stir fry with black bean sauce and that was great. We lucked out with the weather, only getting rain at night.

It was a perfect weekend. Normal. Relaxing. A small break from witnessing big things breaking. I’m going to cling to a hopeful thought when things seem really dark. America is full of dicks. We are a huge, spread out country with more than our fair share of assholes. We are entitled and loud. Trying to control us is like trying to shove a toddler with eight arms and legs into a onesie. And that needs to be our mood for the foreseeable future. Flail those arms, call that manager, shout in English rather than learn any other languages. Slappity slappity! We will not go quietly. And that gives me hope.

Total miles: 63.5, 15.2 mpg, 2 hours 13 min. Site 10 no hookups. Cell service seemed a little better this time. 1 bar of LTE or 5g that worked sort of, most of the time. No dump.