Still No Selfie Stick, Adventures in California

As I write this I’m thankful we’ve moved beyond the Oregon Coast, where search and rescue has just completed air-lifting RVers from a flooded park in Tillamook.  I complain about the rain, but so far it’s just been a nuisance, not a life threatening event!

Continuing on ‘The 101’, we left the second state of our adventure for sunny California.  Only it wasn’t sunny.  Our first 3-day stay was in what I discovered after we arrived – the pot growing capital of the US!  The so called ‘Emerald Triangle’ includes three north western counties of CA and the one I picked is pretty famous for its high crime rate.  We stayed just south of Garberville, around 20 miles from the infamous city of Alderpoint.  If you’re interested, there is a documentary on Prime about the area called ‘Murder Mountain’ which we just had to watch while staying there  – on Halloween even!  We were told not to stray too far from the main roads and we took those words to heart.  After all, I don’t want to leave you guys with no more posts resulting in your mindless searching of the internets for something interesting. 

At this stop we chose to drive through The Avenue of the Giants, a 30 mile winding road through what feels like an enchanted forest. Afterwards we enjoyed a couple hours on the patio at the Benbow Inn.  There I had to order the pumpkin pie martini (you know real men aren’t afraid to order foofoo drinks).  We also shared a local artisan charcuterie plate and the signature Bendow Inn wine.  The weather cooperated a bit that day and the views of the sun slightly breaking through the enormous redwoods were awe inspiring, albeit a bit creepy as the same footage is shown during the opening credits of Murder Mountain.  One last observation on this:  The drive through the majestic redwoods took about 10 minutes (it seemed to).  The drive back took 40.  So its obvious that deep within this forest the space-time continuum breaks down and perhaps the missing people on Murder Mountain will show up at some point.  Maybe in Albuquerque.  

Since we survived our Emerald Triangle experience, we kept going and ended up in the North San Fran area. Petaluma, actually.  Hoping to visit several wineries in the Sonoma Valley, I sat down with the laptop to figure out where we would go and quickly found out that Sonoma / Napa wineries are not open during the week. There were two local distilleries we wanted to visit as well, but also would not be open before we had to leave.  So plan B:  Drive all the main bridges in the Bay Area and hope there aren’t any earthquakes.  Finish the trip by buying some local wines at the grocery store and setting up our own tasting while watching ‘Bottle Shock’ for the 15th time.   

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Our maps app said that Bodega bay would be an interesting place to visit from our Petaluma launch pad, so 10, 9, … go. After a drive through rolling hills recently painted green due to the ‘atmospheric river’, the road dumped us on a long sandy beach, perfect for a stroll with the pups.  Later, a short trip up to a bluff that overlooked massive rocks with crashing waves turned out to be spectacular.  Not only was it one of the most scenic locations so far, but the clouds broke and revealed that glowing orb of heat that we had been looking for since we left.  The rain returned that night but the shift to nice weather during the day and rain at night made we wonder if we had actually left reality back in The Redwoods time warp.

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Alternate reality or not, our next major location again almost turned out to be a bust, but someone was looking out for us.  Planning to do a lot more wine tasting in Paso Robles, I checked the map again and found several wineries we would be near.  Since our stay was going to be over a weekend this time, we shouldn’t have any problems tasting wine.  Wrong!  All of the wineries require reservations and were sold out.  At least that’s what I thought at first. With a little perseverance I found a few that still had some open tasting times, and that turned out to be enough.  Especially if you measure by the number of expensive bottles we’re carrying with us now!  The fruit intensity from the grapes in this area produces the nectar of the gods in my opinion.  We’re wine lovers though (in case you weren’t sure) so it could be that whatever region we’re in at the time is our fav.  In any event, I advise trying some Paso Robles wines and see for yourself! 

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I should also mention that while staying in Paso we suspected we were out of the rain for a while (wrong) and our house was in much need of a bath.  Due to the drought though, we were not allowed to use water for washing the MoHo, at least in the RV parks.  Not giving up, we found a guy who hand washed the entire Enterprise with a spray bottle and rags!  I never got his last name, but José made our home look shiny and new – and he worked on it most of the day in the heat.  I originally thought his price was too high but I paid extra after seeing his work.  Too bad he couldn’t get the scratches out though from where I’ve driven through the trees.

Next we headed to the Santa Barbara area, where it rained again.  Although a beautiful town, I don’t have much to say about this area and I’ve probably talked too much already, so I’ll end with one more bourbon review:

Heaven’s Door Straight Bourbon.  Apparently Heaven’s Door has a lot of weird sharp things and some wagon wheels.  And possibly a crow problem.  I’ll probably never know.  But according to the label, it is aged a minimum of 5 years in Tennessee and has mash bill of 70% corn and 30% rye/malted barley.  This bourbon is bit more oaky than I care for but that adds interesting notes of ash tray both on the nose and the finish.  Perhaps this is no surprise in that Bob Dylan is a co-creator.  Yes Bob Dylan – the ‘musician’.  Maybe a good one to have with a cigar!

So long for now!   -G&T