Sat & Sun Days 16 & 17

After a huge breakfast provided by Peg, Sue & Sandy, we began the beautiful trip back to Boise. After a couple of stops to soak in the views, we dropped the girls at the airport and started our drive towards Wyoming. We travelled past the great salt Lake and headed into the Rockies. Saw our first buffalo herd and hundreds of elk and pronghorn anthelope as we drove through the high plains. There are a LOT of signs, and statues of really tall cowboys in Wyoming! We stopped to take in the george at Malad river. Wow was that awesome! After our longest day of driving so far, we landed for the night in Rock Springs, WY. The hotel was next to a Cold Stone ice cream shop so we grabbed a late snack and called it a day. Tommorow we are off to Denver to see where Amy lives. She should get home tonight.

Thursday, Friday-Days 14, 15

Cliff...the Ladders pro!

After 2 weeks of extreme heat, the weather finally cooled off for us. Rain moved in to Boise on Thursday. We took advantage of the change and spent the day bumming around Sue's house, doing a little laundry (REALLY necessary) and waiting for the Nagel troops to arrive in Boise for the trip to McCall. Despite uncooperative airlines, everyone made it and we packed up a caravan and headed north on the incredibly picturesque drive to McCall. The mountain roads wound through evergreen forests next to the Payette River. Despite the cooler weather, white water rafters and kayakers played on the river. As we continued further north we came across an accident victim being airlifted from a small mountain community (saw the vehicle up the road), a rodeo, farmer's market, and assorted wildlife. Never a dull moment in the mountains! We arrived at the lake house in McCall just in time for a game of ladders and beer in a light rain. Mark grilled burgers, we all spent time catching up and then called it a day. Friday, after fueling up with coffee and a quick breakfast, it was back to ladders and beer until we went to check out town. McCall is a great mountain resort town; fun shops, restaurants, and bars. After walking to the marina and checking out some local businesses we all retreated to the Yacht club for drinks and heated games of pool and shuffleboard. Since this is my blog, I'm going with the story that I kicked butt! (Thanks Amy, Nick, Dust & Amy for going along.) A couple more stops and a near adoption of another puppy (Dustin and Amy....NO) we headed back to the house for more games, a fantastic birthday dinner and a roaring fire. Perfect day! Happy 80th to Peg and Cliff. You are an inspiration to us all....but you already know that!

Day 13 Wednesday

Lakeview, Oregon turned out to be a lovely little town to stop for the night. After settling into the local motel, we walked uptown to grab a bite. The vote was Chinese so we stopped into a little place called King’s Hunan Café. We each ordered a different dish so we could share. Turns out, each entrée was large enough to serve 4 people. We did as much damage as we could then walked around town to work off some of that damage. Lakeview has an old theater with a marquis. We’ve seen a lot of those out west. Most of them, like Lakeview’s, are still in operation with current movies listed. Makes you feel good to know some relics are still hanging in there. The town was full of historic buildings that have been lovingly preserved or restored. A couple of them are even on the Nat’l Registry. We found an authentic bakery that we returned to in the morning for breakfast before we took off again. The decision to travel this route has been a good one so far. Most of the day, we travelled through foothills, buttes, and finally mountains. We began the day in smoke from yet another fire (Cascade Range) but the air cleared as the day went on. We stopped to check out a couple of alkaline lakes (pee-u) and the fault line that runs through Oregon. There was a perfect mountain stream that ran beside us for most of the afternoon as we wound through the mountains. We wanted to put our feet in it but the rattlesnake warning signs kept us from hiking through the brush to get to the streams edge. Oh, we thought about it…….. There were very few towns along the route. We drove over 90 miles with very little traffic and only one “rest stop” (a very loose term for an outhouse, picnic table, and more rattlesnake warning signs). There were mountain passes named “Stinking Water” and “Drinkwater” just a couple of miles apart. Not sure who to trust around here. There were horses running through the valleys around every turn. They were beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. For a second I thought it would be great to be a cowgirl…..ONE second! We finally found a place for ice cream so we called that lunch. Our drive took us through more farming valleys with crops including onions, beets, and corn. Since we had already been through the garlic capitol (Gilroy, CA), and the olive capitol (Corning, CA), it was only fitting that we visit the onion capitol, Vale, OR. There is NO mistaking what the crop is in any of these places. You can smell them as you approach. We got to Boise in time to check out the downtown night life and grab some dinner with Sue. Boise is such a cool place. Downtown is full of bars, restaurants, theaters, parks, all bicycle and pedestrian friendly. We checked several of them out on a quest to find Mark his Black Butte Porter and finally settled in for beer & pizza. We went back to Sue’s and hung out with Nick & Moose (Nick’s awesome dog). I wish we could stay here longer but it will have to be another time. Tomorrow we head up to a cabin in McCall, ID for a couple of days with the Nagel clan. Peg, Cliff, Sandy, & Amys all fly in tomorrow so it should be great fun!

Tuesday

Goodbye wine country.

During morning coffee in Napa, we decided to change up our trip plans (yet again). We had never been to North Central California so we decide to give it a try. We left the rolling vineyard covered hills of Napa and moved into the Sacramento valley. Surrounded by mountains, this very flat valley is full of sunflower farms, strawberry fields, orchards of oranges, apples, cherries, almonds and olives to name a few. We moved from farm country to ranch country to mountains again throughout the day. We began the day at an altitude of 15 and ended in Ponderosa Pine country around 5100 feet. We stopped in Corning, CA (the olive capital of the USA) and stumbled on to Route 99. I think we followed it for a while but it is not marked as well as most of 66. Mark filled you in on the fires so I won't say much else about those. As frightening as they are, they do provide surreal and beautiful views. Along with the fires we also saw giant cranes (I think they were emus) antelope, goats, sheep, and a small herd of majestic bucks standing at the edge of a hillside orchard. There is a huge alkaline lake (Goose) located at the boarder areas of CA & OR that is nearly dry. There was a cloud of dust blowing over the dirt where the water should have been. There was also a train that had derailed in the mountains. We pulled over for a lot of pictures today but I'm sure they cannot convey the true beauty of this area. That is the best part of this trip....seeing the landscape change 2-3 times a day and being excited to see what the next days journey will bring. Tomorrow we have a short trip to Idaho so we'll take our time and see what we can find along the way.

Tuesday Night

Just got out of the hot tub in Lakeview Oregon. We drove through some pretty heavy smoke from the Northern California fires today and the hot tub took the smell off of us. I have never seen so many fire trucks, helicopters and fire planes in my life. Thank goodness for those fire service people. We have driven 3428 miles so far in 74 hours of driving. Geez, that sounds like a lot but it doesn't feel like it has been that long. Northern California was beautiful. We ran into a couple at a Chinese restaurant in town tonight that just came in from Boise and are traveling to where we just came from. They said we have a lot of nothing to look at on our drive tomorrow. I am in Black Butte Porter beer country now but I'm not sure how much I can fit in the car. It is so full of wine I am afraid I may overload the shocks. I'll throw out some pillows to make room.

Days 10-11ish

Ok, I have completely lost track of how long we've been on this adventure! Sunday, we picked Brad up in San Jose and had a nice lunch & visit with Dave and Charlotte then spent the afternoon in San Francisco. After walking around the Wharf, we jumped a tour trolley and explored some of the city’s historic areas. It is always a fun place to visit but we never seem to have enough time there. We headed to Napa before sunset and found a great BBQ place, Bounty Hunter’s. The guys say the ribs were the BEST they’ve ever eaten. Yesterday, we headed to Calistoga to begin our wine adventure. We found a couple of nice smaller places (Envy, Summers) where the tastings were exceptional and the people were so welcoming. Bought some wine and moved along. We stopped in St. Helena to visit Greystone and take some pictures for L & J. Wonderful memories of their wedding there. It is the home of the San Francisco Culinary Institute so it always smells soooo good. While in the St. Helena/Oakville area we also visited the Folie a Deux/Napa Cellars winery. Mark is a fan so it was time for him to take over tasting duties. Brad & I needed a rest! The grounds were lovely and we wished we had planned ahead and packed a lunch. There is a picnic area adjacent to the tasting room. Marty and his friends Diana & Sharon drove up from the bay area to meet us for some more tastings. We stopped at St. Supery and Rubicon Estate in Rutherford for wonderful tastings (thanks Marty!) and then took a break for dinner at the Rutherford Grill. More wine….more food…great day! We now have so much wine in the trunk and being shipped that we should be able to keep you all quenched for the winter. The best part is that we still have No Cal & Oregon microbrew territory to cover.

Day 8

After spending the night in Golet (Santa Barbara burb) we headed to Solvang to visit MY favorite bakery: Olsen's Village Bakery. They make the best cream puff in the world!! Just a touch of raspberry under the cream......yum. My memory did not let me down on this one. After scarfing that up, we walked around town and visited a wine tasing room or two. After picking up some butter cookies for the road, we moved on towards San Luis Obisbo. We tried to find the restaurant where we first had white chili but the town has grown so much that we just wandered and took in all of the sights. We settled for another great pizza place, the name escapes me...Woodhouse or something. Anyway...awesome pizza and salad. After an obligatory stop at Sephora we were off again, to Paso Robels this time. The canyons were gorgeous and covered with vineyards. We took a few pictures but they just don't do justice to the land. There were farms & ranches everywhere with everything from cattle to goats to ostriches, etc. We checked out a few wineries and landed for a while at Peachy Canyon, another of my favorites. After joining the vineyard club and picking up a few bottles, we began our climb over the coastal mountains to the Pacific Coast Highway. The rest of the day was spent slowly navigating the winding drive along the coastline, climbing above the clouds to the sunshine and then decending through the fog to the shore. We stopped to watch elephant seals lounging and playing on the beach. Other points of interest were San Simeon, Pismo Beach, Big Sur (another of my favorite spots) & Carmel. Mark handled the pin curves like a pro. The views are just surreal so we spent the best part of the drive just taking them all in. We arrived in Monterey just as the sun was setting but the marine fog was moving in. We met Dave at our hotel in San Jose and went out for a nice Italian dinner. We had a chance to relax and visit. This morning we will pick up Brad from the San Jose airport and meet Dave for lunch. We are planning to spend the afternoon in San Francisco and then head up to Napa this evening. The next couple of days will involve a lot of wine tasting so if you don't hear from us it's because we can't navigate the keyboard.

The end of Route 66...Santa Monica.

Road trip Part 2

Not much exciting to report today. We took most of the day off yesterday and treated ourselves to spa pedicures (we have put a lot of miles on these tootsies) and the Maxima to a nice in & out cleaning. Bob started us off with a great breakfast. You just can't beat the fresh fruit in CA! On our way out of town, we stopped to see mom at the Auto Club, say a quick goodby and we were off again. We almost beat the LA traffic......almost. It took us about 3 hours to get as far as Ventura so we left the "parking lot" and did a little shopping/walking at a great outlet center. After about an hour, the traffic had thinned so we were off again. We watched the sunset over the ocean and decided to stop for the night just north of Santa Barbara. Found a nice hotel and a cool pizza joint and we were in for the night. Today we begin our trip up the coast and should land somewhere near San Jose this evening. We are hoping to meet up with Mark's brother Dave for dinner.