Category: 2023 Travels

Never have I ever been on the tour of Castello di Amorosa before, and it was amazing. This is a mere mile up the road from Bothe Napa State Park campground, where we have been, many times. It’s confusing that we would not have taken the tour before, but at least we know now! This place reminded us of a modern day Hearst Castle, but with a more unified theme. It is a recent addition to the Napa Valley, as wineries go. Built between 1994 and 2007, it was intended to capture the authenticity of a medieval Tuscan castle. The owner, Dario Sattui, is the great grandson of Vittorio Sattui, who founded St. Helena Wine Cellars in 1885. Dario later founded V. Sattui Winery, which provided him with enough financial success that he was able to launch this dream.

According to the tour guide, and the literature about the castle, much of the structure is made from items imported from Italy. They say the builders tried to remain true to building techniques from the middle ages, although how they got that permitted, I do not know. It certainly does have the look and feel of a genuine Italian castle though. Of the 121,000 square feet of space, much of it is devoted to the actual production of the wine.

Since it is so close to the campground, we were able to walk there right from Dory. It is just over a mile and we got there in plenty of time for our tour to start. Along the way, we enjoyed the vibrant fall colors on all of the grape vines. Once on the tour, we even got to see some late season harvesting in action, and the odor of the fresh pressed grapes was intoxicating, even before the fermentation process had begun. The tour brings you through areas used for wine making, but also through the underground parts, with some purely thematic touches. For example, there is a “torture chamber” room, with artifacts ranging from antique weaponry, to a genuine imported iron maiden. You can take virtual tours on their website, but you do miss out on the highlight: the wine tasting.

Our tour guide let us in on a “secret,” which is that supposedly, the grapes harvested in the Fall of 2022 are producing some exceptional wines. We got to sample a Cabernet Sauvignon directly from the barrel, even though it is still a few years away from being ready. It was absolutely delicious, so I can only imagine how good it will be when it comes of age. If you want a good investment in wine, buy Cabernets from 2022 as soon as they’re ready.

We got a wine tasting package, which works exceptionally well for me, since Richard does not drink. For each of the five rounds, you are given a choice of 2-4 bottles. No need for me to choose. I got to have a dandy time, while Richard enjoyed a “chocolate tasting.” Really, that just meant he got a box of three really nice chocolates. He’s such a good date though, he even let me taste one of them, so I could experience the full flavor depth of their Merlot.

I left able to walk, but really glad I wasn’t driving. We were able to see the construction of the new Napa Vine Trail, which is going to stretch all the way from Vallejo to Calistoga eventually. What a fabulous idea! That will hopefully get many of the wine drinkers out of their cars and onto their feet or bikes. The trail goes directly to Bothe Napa, and it not only earned me the wine calories, but helped me walk it off before dinner. It was a gorgeous fall day in Napa Valley and I can’t imagine a better way to spend the time.

Richard rode a part of the Franz Valley Road loop before he flatted and called for help. Many of the roads up there are pretty beat up. Plus, he was not looking forward to riding back on Highway 29, considering how many drunk drivers there might be out there.

Sunday we woke to rain and an extra hour. For the record, we are not fans of Pacific Standard Time, since it means more campground arrivals in the darkness. But honestly, if they would just stop changing it back and forth, that would be a big improvement.

I love our new hobby of taking winery tours in Napa and look forward to the next one. I highly recommend this tour if you are visiting Napa. I don’t see how you could be disappointed, unless you are working really hard at being grumpy. Now we want to grow grapes. Maybe when the construction is over we can plant like five grape vines on our hillside and make one glass of wine a year. I wonder if they sell tiny French oak barrels that cost less than $1500 for two uses. Wine is fun. Camping is fun. Camping with wine is super fun.

Total miles: 63.3, 16.0 mpg, 2 hours 33 min. Site 7. No solar, no hookups. Sparse cell for ATT, but a little better for Verizon. No dump.

“Well, at least this will make a good blog post.”

This is at least part of the reason I keep up the blog. When things do not go according to plan, we always know, sometimes in the midst of intense problem solving, that at least there will be a decent story here. That’s how this weekend started out: a future recountable story.

I had reservations for Fremont Peak. The calendar showed Fremont Peak, site 7, one of the very few sites where you can actually fit a trailer. We had plans for how we were going to spend Saturday, and tried to get an early start Friday afternoon so we wouldn’t have to arrive in the dark. For context, getting up to the campground is one of the more exciting roads we ever take. I’ve done it enough that I know I can, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The ten mile climb ascends over two thousand feet and includes a handful of narrow, cliffy, sharp corners, where the guard rails look so beat up, you wonder how they were able to keep someone from falling off the edge. There is also a section of maybe a quarter mile where the dropoffs are on both sides of you. And then you get to the campground, whose tiny road is so narrow, you’re not sure you’re supposed to drive there, let alone bring a trailer. For pictures and a description of the road, see this post.

Sadly, we did not beat the setting of the sun, and arrived after the last remnants of dusk had given way to darkness. I just took it super slowly, all the way up, and then down into the Valley View loop. I proceeded down the steep slope to the site, where you can’t see the road at all and just have to have faith it’s there. As we pulled up, we could clearly see a car parked in our spot. I’m figuring it’s just someone from another group stashing their car in hopes no one will come. Richard got out to ask them to move. He found the party fully set up around the fire pit, flames blazing and chairs set up all around. Hmm. He talked to the people as I pulled up the reservation email confirmation to show them as proof. Huh. “Checking out Tuesday?” I notice. “Did I get an extra couple of nights and forgot to modify?” That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but then my eye landed on the arrival date. Sunday. Oh shit.

Richard had just finished pointing out to the party that our names were on the reservation post. But then he also noticed that next to our names, and under the reservation tags of other names, were the dates for Sunday and Monday nights. Oh shit.

You have to understand, this campground has maybe two, perhaps three sites total that can fit a trailer. With the one I thought I’d reserved definitely taken, the only thing I could think of was to drive up to the other loop and see if the one we’d looked at before as a potential alternative was free. This meant navigating the rest of the tiny loop road in the dark, but we were in full panic mode now and I was wide awake. I pulled Dory into the day use area and just parked. I needed to regroup here. I did walk over to the site I had in mind as a possible landing for the night, but it had reservation notices posted for the whole weekend. It was dark and cold, we were hungry, and no good options were presenting themselves.

We figured we’d better have dinner so we could think better. I had Dory as far off to the side of the parking area as I could, and I was at that point planning to just camp there overnight and figure out the rest in the morning. We raised the roof and Richard heated up a frozen pan dinner while I surveyed every possible campground in the area through our Allstays app. All the sites, trailer friendly or not, were reserved in Fremont Peak. I called the private place at the bottom of the hill, but did not get an answer. I called the huge RV park off Highway 101, but they did not answer. I checked online reservations of all the state and county parks anywhere in the vicinity and they all said 0 sites available. We discussed what might happen if we stayed put, and tried to guess whether a ranger might pound on the door in the middle of the night and make me do that drive down the mountain at 3am. We talked about just giving up and driving the 2-3 hours back home, arriving around 10pm. We even looked up the Walmart in Gilroy to see if it allowed overnights (reviews say no). Things were pretty bad.

Then Richard thought to call New Brighton State Park directly. I never thought anyone would answer at 8:30pm, but shockingly, the ranger at the kiosk picked up. Richard explained our situation and asked if there was an empty site we could stay in for the night. The ranger said yes, there was, but they weren’t going to be in the kiosk to check us in for much longer. I pulled up directions to get there and Google said it would take about an hour. The ranger said they could wait an hour.

And so we high tailed it down that mountain, as fast as I dared go. Around the hairpin deathy corners, in the dark, with nothing but adrenaline to keep me lucid. I do not usually drive highway speeds, but once we got to the bottom and onto the 65 mph highway stretch, I was right there matching it, making sure navigation’s arrival time did not slip. The ranger called a little after 9pm and we gave our location and the predicted arrival of 9:36. They said they were going to leave at 9:40. We pulled up to the kiosk at exactly 9:34 and thanked the ranger for longer than they probably wanted.

We pulled in to our site, relieved and deliriously happy that any of that had worked. Now we could safely unhitch, Richard could shower, and I could have some well earned Chardonnay. We slept like rocks that night.

The next morning, my plan was to get on the waiting list to get into a site so we could stay. I wanted Richard to be able to get in a good ride, since I had a lot of reservation guilt and wanted to do penance. I was so appreciative of the fact that he never once laid into me for the reservation screw up. It’s really not at all like me to make that kind of mistake, so he was more confused than angry, but still, that could have gone all kinds of bad. I got our names on the list, and the ranger seemed to think it was very likely we’d get a released site at 2pm. So Richard headed off to Gayle’s Bakery and brought me back an eclair. We had to vacate the temporary overnight site at noon, but were allowed to hang out in the day use parking area. Promptly at 1:45, Richard showed up at the kiosk to await the daily site releases. He scored a nice spot, with hookups no less, that was even available Sunday night as well. I did some quick analysis of how bad it would be to take Monday off, and the answer was: not too bad at all. When the universe hands you something like that, you don’t think about it; you make it happen.

We spent Saturday walking around picturesque Capitola. The charming beach town got thoroughly pounded during the storms that wiped out nearby Seacliff State Park. Much of it has already been repaired, but there are signs remaining that some of the structures might never recover. It is a very touristy town, but earns it’s keep with an array of nice little shops and restaurants. The colorful vacation rentals sitting right on the beach set the place apart, even if they are sort of like movie set pieces. It’s a fun place. After dinner, we walked over to the beach to catch the sunset. All plans had been set in motion for a Monday off, so Sunday was ours for the taking.

Richard got in his big ride. Instead of going down, then back up, Fremont Peak, as planned, he did a Jay’s Essential Ride up Bean Creek Road, to Mountain Charlie Road. He said it was a “best of the best,” and didn’t even get lost. Meanwhile, I drove down to Elkhorn Slough to go paddling with otters of the sea. I note that, if I had a hard sided, rather than inflatable kayak, I would not have taken it with me for the weekend. It’s really nice to always have it in the roof box, just in case we end up somewhere with unexpected boating. We actually had an extra dinner with us because I thought there was a chance I’d be up for cooking on Friday night. Since that was nowhere near what transpired, we got to use the ingredients for our “extra” night on Sunday.

After dinner, we went over and chatted with an Altoiste couple we spotted with their 2114 across the way. They told us a harrowing tale of getting trapped at the top of Henry Coe during a sudden snow. They had to stay an extra two nights before it was safe to go back down. We told them our Fremont Peak story, and since they knew the place, they appreciated how not fun that must have been. Nice couple!

The cherry on top of the saved weekend was to walk over to Marianne’s for ice cream. We walked along the beach and watched the waves and the sunset. We noted that the million dollar houses all along that strip have mostly gotten repaired. Seacliff Campground, on the other hand, is still very much gone. The debris has been cleaned up, and they are allowing parking in an area that used to be campsites. But there are no signs of rebuilding the campground. I wonder if they even will. It’s sad, but understandable.

And finally, on Monday, after lazing around for most of the morning, we drove home via Highway 1 along the coast, catching a lunch time stop in wonderful Pescadero. I will never not want to stop at Arcangeli Grocery, any time I’m in the area. We picked up a hot sandwich for lunch, and got deli salads and cherry pie for dinner. Richard snuck in a quick ride up to see the closed section of Stage Road, and then we endured highway traffic to get back home.

It was a glorious save of a weekend, one that started out pretty badly. We are now routinely verifying reservation confirmations prior to leaving. I don’t know what happened there, but honestly, it turned out to be a fabulous weekend regardless.

Oh! I need to mention that my little face got into a Safari Condo commercial! A bunch of owners spent the summer sending in photos and videos for Safari Condo’s new promotional materials. I was surprised and deeply honored to see a quick thumbs up facie shot make it into the cut. That was super nice. 🙂 This little trailer sure does fill our lives with adventure. And sometimes eclairs.

Total miles: 144.0 with a side trip to have dinner at the top of Fremont Peak, 16.9 mpg, 3 hours 28 minutes to get to the site I did not have reserved, an hour to panic and grasp for backup plans, and another hour to race downhill to New Brighton. Site 18 overnight, then site 53 with hookups. Good solar. Good cell service. Great dump. Really nice rangers.

Wow, this little county park outside Winters just keeps getting better and better. We were here a couple of weeks ago and I was bumming because I couldn’t do much of a paddle, due to a slow air leak in my boat. We pledged a Do Over and I reserved again, taking care to pick one of the nicer sites.

The site is just incredible, with water views from Dory’s windows, and my own little private launching bay. No hookups, but didn’t need ’em. Weather could not have been more perfect on Saturday and we accidentally timed it to coincide with a century bike ride.

As we were driving out, we noticed a sign about some kind of big organized ride. “What a shame,” we thought. Too bad we didn’t know, or we could have timed our stay to align. “Wait, what was that date? Hey! That’s tomorrow!” Sweeet.

Richard got to spend all day Saturday tagging along for the Davis Bike Club’s Foxy’s Fall Century. He didn’t need to register because he was not going to need to partake of the food or services, and doesn’t need another T-shirt. But what he did get was to be able to ride along with hundreds of other bikies. Very little chance of getting lost that way. It’s also a lot safer on busy roads when you are in a group. The start and end points are in Davis, and he had no interest in doing the full 100 miles. So he joined the route for the hilly loop, clocking in at over fifty miles and just over three thousand feet of climbing. The route goes right by the campground, so all he had to do was roll out and onto the road. He had a great ride, in good company, and did not have to worry about me being bored while he was gone.

“Lake” Solano is actually a section of Putah Creek where the river gets very wide right before a dam. The other side of the river is dammed at Lake Berryessa, so the flow of water is steady and mild. Otters and Herons love this place, and I must have seen a dozen river otters, or more, just swimming around, chomping fishies and blooping in and out of the water. There were little tiny otters too, making chirp chirp sounds and doing their best to keep up with mom and dad. Pictures do not do them justice, but I got some nice videos. It’s time like these when I think I want a really expensive camera with a zoom lens. Then I remember I would have to carry all that on a boat and I go nah, the iPhone is fine.

In order to really stalk them and not drift downstream, I had to run my boat aground on islands of thick water plants. Then I could wait for them to come out of the reeds for a while. By the time Richard had finished his ride, I was still on the water, beaming like an idiot.

I came ashore for a while to hear about his ride and have a snack. The cool thing about being able to launch from your site is that you can leave everything set up for another paddle. It’s rare that I get to take advantage of something like this, so I hopped in my boat again to get in another float before making dinner. So nice.

Dinner was a grilled Cajun-Spiced Salmon, with roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts. We followed dinner with a walk to the day use area, where there is better cell service. Richard was just wanting the Strava data for his ride, but I was looking for my otter buddies. No otter spotting this time, but we did catch a nice sunset over the water. We also saw a guy “magnet fishing” off the bridge. He was throwing a huge, heavy magnet, tied to a super long bungee cord, over and over again into the water. He said he mostly doesn’t get much, but it’s a fun hobby.

It rained for our return home on Sunday, making us both remark how much we had lucked out. The weather was perfect, the timing with the century ride was an unexpected bonus, and I could not possibly have had a better Saturday.

As Do Overs go, this was the absolute best. What a fabulous place. We’ve come a handful of times before, but this visit takes the cake. It doesn’t get any better.

Total miles: 56.3, 17.2 mpg, 2 hours 14 min. Site 26, no hookups. Excellent water views and launch from site. Almost no cell service except an occasional bar of 5g, enough to let a text or two through. Fine dump, $15 extra fee. Road noise from highway 128 across the water, but it didn’t bother either of us.

Nice easy, quiet weekend in a nearby go to location. We knew it was going to get up into the 90s this weekend, which makes Richard very happy. I looked forward to getting on the water during the hottest hours.

I upped my game in two hot weather categories: Aluminet hanging, and Margarita making. The Aluminet is something that I seem to struggle with every time I put it up, and have never arrived at a satisfying system that goes on the same way every time. So I did that and I’m happy with it. It requires at least two keder rail stoppers to keep the big 2-ply sheet from sliding back and forth. I happen to have made my own years back and those turned out to be the perfect thing to also attach the extra front and rear pieces using a carabiner. The bottom corners get held in place by bungees secured on the bumper or on the front stabilizers. Aluminet is a game changer when it comes to deflecting heat and our little thermometer said it didn’t get hotter than 92º inside, even though it was 96º outside. Nice.

The margarita project was necessitated due to the lack of availability on my favorite mix. I’ve been stocking Laughing Glass mix for years because it tastes good, is made from natural ingredients, and is lower calorie than your standard mix. Thing is, you can’t get it on the road. Other thing is, it goes out of stock frequently. So, knowing this would be a perfect margarita weekend, I put in some time finding a reliable recipe, and an easy to clean lime squeezer. The result was excellent. I no longer need to have margarita anxiety because all of the ingredients are easy to obtain.

Besides that, it was a low key, lazy weekend. Richard did his usual Delta Loop ride, and I did a paddle. All lovely. Richard notes that the roads in this area are in horrible condition. It’s nicely low in traffic, however, so that balances it. Then it was chill time under the awning and grill time for dinner. I made Sheet Pan Fig-Dijon Pork with Balsamic Potatoes and Asparagus. Watched a couple of silly movies (“Meg 2, The Trench” and “Blue Beetle”) and generally did nothing productive. All good.

Next weekend is planned for staying home. Looking forward to catching up with the neighbors we see more online than we do in person.

Total miles: 35.3, 14.9 mpg, 1 hour 38 min. Site 75 no hookups. Good solar with afternoon shade. Excellent cell for ATT, but not as good for Verizon. Good dump. Boat launch $8 with camping.

It’s been a while since we’ve tried a new place. This is a brand new park, located right at the eastern side of the Dumbarton Bridge. It sits on the edge of the southern marsh lands in the San Francisco Bay and is conveniently located if you are looking to travel through the Bay Area. As such, you wouldn’t think it would be much of an outdoorsy place, just a stone’s throw from downtown Hayward. But it butts up against Coyote Hills Wilderness, and actually provides substantial access to open space.

We had no idea what to expect, and my expectations were low. It is a brand new park, with all new facilities, and I think they designed it pretty well. There are lots of hookup sites, but the angles are staggered, so you are not right up next to someone. Still, it is an all paved, RV park with amenities, so this is not going to feel like you’re boondocking. I think once the newly planted trees and shrubs fill in, it will feel more like a park. There are laundry facilities, and a vending machine, and a little campground store coming soon. And you can’t beat the cell service. If I had better hearing, I could probably have heard the steady traffic going across the bridge, but Richard says it’s hardly noticeable.

Our agenda for Saturday was to get in some hiking. There are lots of nice trails and we clocked just over six miles doing an exploration loop. The weather was overcast, with threats of drizzle that did not materialize. Perfect weather for hiking.

The first thing we noticed was a large structure at the top of the hills that seems to be some kind of water treatment facility. As you look down at the bay, you can spy lots of individually separated water bodies, bordered by long berms into large pools. I guess this is all part of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds, which began during the Gold Rush for salt harvesting. Now the area has become part of a huge restoration project.

We took a downhill trail to the Visitor Center, where we saw really nicely done exhibits on the local ecosystems. They also had a whole room devoted to exhibits on Native American basket weaving. Outside, they had created a beautiful native plant garden with lots of nectar producing plants favored by butterflies and hummingbirds.

We finished off the loop by walking along the bay, ending up back at Dory in the late afternoon. I made a nice Blue Apron Tilapia dish, and we went out to catch the sunset. It was more of an uphill hike than I thought it would take, just to get up to a good view. But it was a nice vantage point. You could make out the Dumbarton and San Mateo Bridges. I’m sure on a clear day, you can see all the way up to San Francisco, but it was too overcast for that.

I’d happily come to this place again. It’s close, and clean, and has access to enough trails that you’ve got something fun to do. If you’re wanting city stuff, you’re close to both San Jose and Oakland. I think it would make a good launching point for a Bay Area stay, though you’re not that close to SF. I won’t oversell the naturey, campy feel of it, but we both enjoyed our stay.

Total Miles: 36.8, 16.5 mpg, 2 hours. Site 48 full hookups. Great solar, excellent cell. Also wifi available. Great dump right in the site. Site was a bit tippy, probably for drainage. All new facilities. Campground store coming soon. Laundry and vending machine. New bathrooms and showers. Gate is locked after 10pm, so no entrance, only exit.

We have stayed at this place many times and there isn’t much to update about the campground. It’s a great place to go if you want amenities and a fun campground store, while still having access to a nice calm river. There are always tons of people, but we tried a site a bit out of the thick of things, and it was nice. You can pay lots of money to camp in a covered wagon, or pay lots of money to camp in a cutesy cottage, or pay lots of money to camp in your RV. Any way you slice it, the place is not cheap. But they sell six different kinds of It’s Its in their store, so I rest my case.

Our Saturday was all about me getting my boat in the water to test my patch, while Richard tried the King Ridge Loop again to see if he could do it without getting lost. Last time he tried, he wound up thirty miles up the coast. I had to drive up to Stewart’s Point to retrieve him. I then contacted my Occupational Therapist friend to ask, “No seriously, what is wrong with him?” Now he has assistive technology in the form of Guru Maps. The app runs without service on downloaded maps. It can show you where you are on the map, and where you are in relation to a downloaded route. All good stuff.

It came so close to working.

I probably spent around two hours paddling around. My boat passes the does-it-leak test, and it was a lovely day on the river. There was a couple on rented kayaks out there, looking very happy. As they passed, the woman called out to me, “Isn’t this great?? It’s my first time! I’ve never done this before! I’m having so much fun!!” She even thanked me for being out on the water with her, to share in the fun. That just made my day. It’s great to be around that kind of excited energy.

Eventually, I decided it was time to get in the car and see if I could catch Richard on the road. I, too, had the downloaded route, and the plan was to follow him until we met up. It all started out great as I took Austin Creek Road to the tiny place known as Cazadero. I was mostly curious to see it because of my bestie neighbor, Caz. It really is just a couple of buildings and a general store, but cute all the same.

Then I took the right fork out of town and started up King Ridge Road. Here’s the thing. Richard does these roads on a bike. To him, there is always plenty of room, even it it’s a one laner. I specifically asked if the road was wide enough for two cars to pass each other, because I don’t like scooching by someone coming the other way. He’s all, “Yeah, most of it is wide enough.” So I took the fork.

Here’s the other thing. I keep listening to the bicycle rider with impaired spatial awareness regarding driving conditions when he hardly ever drives. My fault. He did notice that the road conditions were potholey and terrible, except in the places they have newly paved. But yeah, there is no way two cars can pass each other comfortably on almost all of that road. Add to that the fact that most of it is also blind corners, so you can’t tell if the car coming the opposite direction will just suddenly appear. And then, to top it off, much of the road goes along a ridge. Like its name would suggest.

I did not enjoy most of the fifty miles spent crawling along that ridge. And there was no cell service. Are we having fun yet? When we were able to occasionally get texts through, I was all about hands free mode, due to the vice grip of my hands on the wheel. As I finally approached the end of the ordeal, many texts from Richard came through at once, the last of which sounded like: “You passed me :(” The car said aloud: “sad face emoji.”

By that time, I was almost back at the campground and I wasn’t sure what he meant. Once stopped, I went back through texts and tried to reach him. One of his messages also said, “running out of battery.” So, the poor guy, exhausted from his massive ride, had tried (poorly) to communicate that he was going to wait for me at a vista point on Highway 1, where he wanted me to stop and give him a ride the rest of the way. But all of Richard’s poor communication super powers, combined with low cell service and and expiring battery, messed up the landing. I did go back and look for him, but he had abandoned the vista point after I passed it by, and proceeded down the steep and windy section of Highway 1, shivering all the way because it was getting late.

We didn’t connect until Duncan Mills, the little town about a mile outside the campground. Way too late to be helpful. I decided that since it was already into dinner time, I would pick up some pizza at Gold Coast Coffee and Bakery. That, at least, was a plan that worked as expected. We wolfed down a variety of pizza by the slice combinations, and examined all the ways the day could have gone better. We do own a portable iPhone battery charger, and that is now going to go with Richard on any long ride. We parsed some unclear grammatical usage, like ill defined indefinite pronouns. My advice to him is to avoid pronouns generally, so a sentence like “hope all is ok” would be revised to: “hope the plan to have you pick me up at vista trail is ok.” Also, vague verb usage should be avoided when rides are hoped for. Like, “gonna stop here” would be much more effective if it read: “gonna stop for the day at vista trail. I will wait for you here.” Because then, even if I got texts sporadically, I would know exactly what the plan was.

Anyway, he made it safe. Shaking and exhausted, but not enough to deter him from planning the next time he wants to try that ride. Trust me, we will have a much clearer sag plan in the future.

Still and all, it was a great weekend. We stumbled upon a pair of Altoistes camping with friends. We introduced ourselves and said the magic word: “Altoistes.” There were cheers and embraces like meeting long time friends. They mentioned Randy and how they are trying to get in to see him. It’s one of my favoritest things to run into Altoistes on the road. Just after proper grammar.

Total miles: 92.9, 16.7 mpg, 3 hours 8 min. Site 92 hookups. Good dump. Good cell for ATT now; used to be a dead zone. Campground wifi not as strong in this site as it is closer to the beach area. Awesome campground store. Activities for kids.

Well, I got the boat leak figured out. And the CM did not give us any trouble getting out on Friday. And we saw a river that was lousy with otters! And Richard got a lovely, hot bike ride. The only downer of the weekend was that I was not able to get in much of a paddle when circumstances were perfect. But on balance, that’s still a lot of positives. And I reserved a do over at this campground later, to try again.

The Caravan Mover working on the second try was a great start to the weekend. The people at Powertouch called Richard back and explained that replacing the turny nut thing would mean replacing the whole actuator, which sounds expensive. They did advise him though that doing a reset means you need to turn the turny nut thing a full two rotations. We had only been turning it maybe one rotation. So we did that, and after one round of engaging, retracting, and engaging again, it worked! And in fact, when we got home, it worked the very first time. So maybe this is a longer term improvement. Crossing fingers.

It was going to be a rather hot weekend, so we were glad to have hookups for the AC. We could have maybe gotten a site with a better river view without no hookups, but it was worth the view sacrifice. This site allows just enough of a view through the trees that my OtterDar was able to spot some splishing activity while I was drinking my Saturday morning coffee. Out I ran, and over to a place where I could get a good look see. There must have been at least six playful river otters diving and gliding right in front of me. There is no better way to begin a Saturday.

Richard set out for a nice ride and I got ready for a paddle. I knew I would need to address the slow leak at some point, but my hope was that I’d be able to stay afloat long enough to find my otter friends before I ran out of air. All looked good at set up and the conditions were spectacular. I am quite the princess when it comes to boating conditions. It doesn’t take much in the way of wind, or cold, or clouds, for me to go “meh” and skip it. This day was the perfect level of hot; just enough that being on the water is refreshing. I got to bliss out for about a half an hour, but then I could tell for sure that the main tube chambers were going down. The floor was fine, and I wondered how much weight the floor could hold all by itself. But then it started to look like the whole thing might just fold in half, and I did not really want to go swimming. So I got out.

I thought I could maybe take the whole thing apart, find the leak, slap on a patch, and jump back in. First off though, Advanced Elements boats are constructed using air tubes, wrapped inside an outer cloth cover, and then inserted into a boat shaped skin. They are clever, in that you can easily disconnect the valves from the outer skin, and unzip the cloth cover, to finally get to the tube. But this all took a while. And I did not see any obvious punctures, or seam ruptures. So I accepted defeat and threw everything back in the roof box. I went back to Dory and started micro inspecting the tube while it was inflated. Eventually, I located the tiniest of holes, hidden underneath a seam flap. Hooray! I brought out the patch kit and read the instructions, which indicated a 24 hour wait time after applying the patch. Boo!

Richard returned to a sad, grumpy sweetie. Things were looking bummy for me, so I tried a desperation move at 4:00 by driving back over to Day Use to see if maybe I could rent a boat. Their rentals are all due back by 4. *sigh* With that, I spent the next forty five minutes just putting my boat all back together so at least it would be ready to go the next time.

I did cheer myself up with an absolutely delicious grill dinner. We had Sour Cherry-Dijon Pork with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots. The vegetables got grilled in foil packets with olive oil, and then mixed together with butter, and lemon juice and zest. The pork got coated with Weeknight Hero spice blend, and topped with sour cherry spread and whole grain Dijon. OMG it was so good.

We tossed around the idea of trying to get me back in the water Sunday morning, even if it meant reserving the site another day so we could stay past check out. The princess declared “meh” because it would be a hassle, and a silly expense, and mean arriving late at home. I wasn’t wanting to force it just for the sake of getting on the water. It was just a shame I had missed out on such perfect ottery conditions. I did get a reservation for a weekend in December. My guess is it will be too chilly. It’s not easy being a princess.

My goal for the weekend was honestly just to deal with my boat. So from that perspective, the mission was accomplished. It’s fixed, and now I know how to fix my boat. Both very good things. Next weekend we will again be on a slow flowing river, so chances are good that I will be able to test the repair. Richard says the Lake Solano Loop ride is very nice, but the road conditions are not great. He didn’t get lost though! So we both had definite wins.

Total miles: 54.0, 18.1 mpg, 1 hour 54 min. Site 33 EW hookups. Almost no cell service. Tiny view of river through trees. Went to first dump where there was no rinse hose. Use second one next time. Launching from Day Use area means no mud, but there is limited parking down low. They do rent boat there for $15, but only until 4pm, and they stop renting at 2:45.

It is always good to get out. Lately, it has not been easy to get down our driveway because the Caravan Mover on the driver’s side does not want to fully engage. We have adjusted it using a big T wrench tool thingy so many times, that the nut has become stripped. Now we use a 7mm socket that sort of works, except then it gets stuck on the nut and has to be pulled out with pliers. And now there is rebar sitting in our driveway, from the still unfinished outside landscaping project, that we also have to get past. But we struggle through the launch, weekend after weekend, during the last five feet of the maneuver that gets us off our driveway and onto the street. We’ve got ramps, and gutter fillers, and a winch, and the caravan movers that we patiently engage and disengage, maybe ten times, before they finally move fully into position. Once down, everything works just fine. But this process has become frustratingly more time consuming, and it takes all we’ve got on a Friday afternoon to keep it together so we can just get rolling. By Sunday, we are cleansed of the week’s worth of piled on stress, and we are likely to forget about it. We have reminders to call the manufacturer to see what the hell can be done, but then the week gets away from us both and there we are again on Friday.

Even so, once we’re en route, it is like our weekly therapy session. Sometimes we have a lot to process, and sometimes we just get to unhook. But whatever happens, we always always always come back better. This week was no different. We acknowledged that we’re both so so done with the unfinished outdoor project. The frustration with the contractors is deep and intense. Yelling at them does no good. We’re on a spending freeze until we get the debt under control, so the whole “add to cart” retail therapy strategy is unavailable. Plus, since I’m going to be counting calories forever, there is no binging away the blues. Somehow, the magic of Dory time still does the trick.

Lake Berryessa is the perfect place for a weekend of fun in the sun, or lying around just being lazy. We did a little of both. Richard rode out to Lake Henessey and I met him there with the car. Richard wants to remember that the roads out that way are in pretty bad shape. It’s a nice drive through rolling hills and wooded valleys. There are still lots of standing burned trees from the big fire, but there is also new growth. The lakes are still looking good and high, even at the tail end of summer. And there are vineyards along the way, supplying lovely grapes to nearby Napa Valley wineries. Blue skies and hot weather made for a lovely day.

We stopped on our way back at the Turtle Rock Bar & Cafe. This is a funky little place where they have pinned hundreds of signed dollar bills to the ceiling and walls. They’ve got a few groceries and hot food to order. It’s a favorite stop for bikers.

Once back at the campground, I weighed whether or not I wanted to get my boat in the water. Last time I used it, I noticed there was a slow deflation in the main tubing. It wasn’t enough to put me in danger of sinking, but it was enough to make me think about the possibility of sinking. So if I were going to go out, I’d need to either find the leak and repair it, or stay pretty close to shore. Anyway, apathy won out and I chilled out in my Nemo chair while watching others in the water instead. That was quite nice.

Dinner was a Blue Apron lettuce cups recipe, with turkey, mushrooms, and bell pepper. It’s a make your own adventure dinner, where you get to assemble the cups and top with a delicious sesame-sambal sauce, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Then it was shows and bed, with the critical dongle in its proper place.

Once again we return rejuvenated after another successful therapy session. We can only hope that our metaphorical boats are pumped up enough, and the leaks slow enough, that we make it through the week for the next round without sinking.

Total miles: 68.5, 17.5 mpg, 2 hours 19 min. Site 98 no hookups. Great solar, excellent cell. Good dump but $25 fee. Boat launch, but no easy way to get down to the water with a kayak from any of the sites.

There are just so many things out there that we have no idea about. County Fairs, for example, represent an entire cultural phenomenon, a way of life for lots of people, and we only just now got to experience one up close. Beyond visiting the carnival and midway parts when I was a kid, the extent of my fair smarts could be captured entirely by “Charlotte’s Web.” We specifically reserved this new campground a year ago, when hearing about the “boat races,” and thought it might be fun to stay nearby.

For a three day Labor Day weekend, we did not encounter much traffic heading out. I’ve gotten used to taking the twisty turny Highway 29 out of Napa Valley, and we made the trip in about three and a half hours. This campground sits on the edge of the public park and boat launch in Lakeport. Lakeport lies on the southwestern side of Clear Lake, which has noticeably less algae than the southeastern side tends to see in the late summer. We pulled in through a large open gate and checked in with the owners before setting up in our site.

I liked the owners and they were upfront about the positive changes they have made to the campground. Apparently, there used to be a problem with people coming through the property, so they got lots of street lights and cameras for security. They gave us a heads up on the bathroom situation, with no hot water for the showers, and a door that will stick shut if closed too hard. None of that intimidated us, and all we needed to decide was whether to spin for view. With the lake in view and a three night stay, we went with the spin.

We were super tired and barely had the energy to set up for shows. Here we realized we had tragically forgotten the all important “dongle” at home; the thing that makes it so the rear screen projector can connect to an iPad or iPhone. We were outta luck and resorted to watching silly shows on the iPad. Hard fail there.

Saturday was all about the fair. But first, we walked over to the Lakeport computer store to buy the last HDMI to lightning dongle they had. For a mere $16, Richard suspected it was a knock off and had little hope it would work. He turned out to be right, so it was a gamble that did not pay off. Oh well. “Dongle” has been added to our camping check list to make sure it never gets left again.

We lunched at Taqueria la Mexicana and it was a perfect way to fuel up before entering the world of cotton candy and fried Oreos. Everything is walking distance in Lakeport and we paid our $12 per person to go check this thing out. Right away, it was a sensory overload, with live music, carnival ride sounds, and a wild mixture of unhealthy food smells combined with, but more overwhelmed by, the pungent odor of livestock.

Most of the people seemed to be gathered in the auctioning area. Here we learned all about how kids join the 4H Club to raise turkeys, pigs, sheep, etc., so they can be sold come fair day. They all proudly brought up their specimens, one at a time, while an auctioneer chanted in rhythmical, rapid fire, unintelligible sounds, until at some point, he would sing-song his way toward announcing the winning bidder. It was all fascinating and mesmerizing just listening to the bid calling. We’ve seen that kind of thing in movies or TV shows, but this was our first time seeing one for real. The kids all knew what to do and I didn’t see any of them losing it over selling off their animals for “harvesting.” I don’t think I would have done so well as a kid. I would have desperately wanted a Charlotte.

We left the scene to wander through the other categories. I decided I could definitely handle being a tiny fairy garden fair person. Those were adorable. They had displays and ribbons for flowers, flower arrangements, and produce of all sorts. I can just imagine the pride having your little succulent garden, with the tiny river rocks, itty bitty bridge, and mini string lights, displaying its nice blue ribbon. Fun!

After we’d been immersed for a couple of hours, we retreated for some down time in Dory. We knew we would be returning for the big event and made a plan for how to have fair food dinner, without seriously regretting it later. Richard went with a corn dog, and I got one of those big hot dogs. We split a basket of tater tots, opting for the plain version, rather than the loaded versions, topped with combinations of nacho cheese, chili, bacon, or jalapeños. There were lots of other fair food options to choose from, but I didn’t want to blow all of my weight loss in one evening.

At last, it was time to find the grandstand and await the beginning of the “Boat Races,” with a Demolition Derby preview event to whet the appetite. The pre-show was about what one would expect: put a bunch of old beater cars in an arena and watch people bash them until they can’t move anymore.

The main event was something special though. Knowing you were going to watch a boat race on land doesn’t quite prepare you for the fact that nary a watercraft was going to be traveling by trailer. They just hitched up a bunch of boats, some not bad looking, to some kind of tow vehicle, and dragged them round and round on a watered down track. The point I guess it to knock off each other’s boats from their tow cars, until no one has a boat anymore. It’s like the least safe thing you can imagine, unless you wished they had moistened the track with gasoline first.

We were laugh crying the whole time it was so funny. I cannot believe all the drivers came out of that alive. There was definitely some car on fire at some point and we had to laugh ourselves silly while simultaneously being asphyxiated. It was so much fun and now we want to just go around touring fairs for the rest of our lives. What a blast!

Sunday was a much more normal day for us, though we could still hear the fair going on all day. Richard rode all around the lake; a 67 mile ride for him! I got my boat on the water and enjoyed a nice float on a very full lake. In the afternoon, we were treated to a lovely visit from our Altoistes friends who live in Soda Bay. We chatted and caught up, and they gifted us some wonderful home grown produce. They said the tomatoes were not outstanding this year, but we were sure impressed. In fact, once we got home, we made ourselves some homemade Pizza Margheritas, and they were out of this world.

We really love Clear Lake. The vibe is like a throwback in time. It is unpretentious and uncrowded. The wildlife viewing there is always a draw and this time it was all about the Black Crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax). They find their way to Clear Lake every year to nest and make quite the ruckus. They also poop all over the trees they have taken over. We thought we were seeing ash fall from the sky. We looked up what wildfires there were nearby, but it turned out to be flakes of dried Heron poop. So that is something.

We will come again for sure. And we’ll probably do the boat races again too. This park was a perfect place to stay in terms of location. It felt a little weird to be so close to the public park, but if it had been hot, I would have appreciated to possibility of plugging in to the 110 outlet nearby. All in all, it was a fun and memorable weekend.

Total miles: 113.4, 16.5 mpg, 3 hours 30 min. Site 1 “hookups” in the form of a 110 outlet nearby. Water spigots rather far away. Good solar in the middle of the day and nice shade in the afternoon. Excellent cell for both. Can launch close to site or use paved boat launch also close by. Sewer outlet in the site, but we didn’t use it because it was kind of high. There is a free public dump in the boat launch area that is good.

Super chill weekend for us at a favorite location. No hurricanes, no earthquakes, just fog and romantic walks on beaches. Hoping everyone in Southern California is ok and not washing away. The deserts are getting doused right now.

Nothing much to report on this end. We will finally be taking a rest weekend next week so that we can clean all the things. I did some more recipe pantry rearranging and made a Blue Apron to use up the Romesco that didn’t get touched over the summer. The Romesco Chicken & Poblano Pepper with Currant Couscous was so good that it put Romesco sauce right back in the required pantry items. It’s not that easy to find, but it sure is good.

Another thing that is good is Wild Flour Bread. I met Richard out there so that I too could enjoy the sconey goodness. We split a nectarine, raspberry, chocolate chip and a Meyer lemon, mango, raspberry. They were exquisite.

In order to have earned those calories, we did the Pinnacle Gulch beach trail loop. This time we went clockwise, going down the steep part of the Shorttail Gulch trail, and then back up the gentler climb on the Pinnacle Gulch trail. We liked that. It wasn’t low tide, so the tide pools were hidden from view. We had to take the high road along the beach at times, and eventually got stopped by a rock outcropping. There was a couple just going right into the water and they disappeared through a natural tunnel in the rock. When they reappeared, they said the water got deeper on the other side, so I’m not sure that could ever be a dry way of walking the whole beach. We were content to stop there.

That’s it. Just a nice fun weekend. Sorry, boring is good sometimes and I’m appreciating the very boring weather. Hang on tight SoCal!

Total miles: 77.1, 16.4 mpg, 2 hours 32 min. Site 76 no hookups. 5g for both. Great solar. Adequate dump, but waited in line for an hour. $7 paid at the kiosk.