Last Day for Wine Tasting

Wed. brought the last day for our wine tasting tour of Sonoma County. The day started at an excellent winery in Healdsburg - the Seghesio Winery. They are known for their Zins.

 From their we continued on over to the southern part of Alexander Valley. Our first stop was Hawk Winery, but didn't find anything to our taste, then stopped at the Robert Young Winery, also not to our taste.

We visited several more wineries, but along the way we enjoyed the beauty of many flowers blossoming.

Also the scenery was spectacular with all the vineyards everywhere.

Just rows upon rows of grapes.

Some of the wineries we visited were Chalk Hills, Lancaster, Alexander Valley Winery and ended up purchasing 9 bottles more wine for our collection. The last place we visited we tasted right out of the barrel - but unfortunately the wine wasn't any good.

All in all we have had a wonderful experience of Sonoma County. In fact I like it much better than Napa Valley. There are less people and the wineries are sooooo much friendlier and give you all the information you want and take the time to explain everything. Now we are packing up and heading out in about 1/2 hour to Lodi where we will visit with my sister Sharon and nephew Mike and his family in Sacramento. Then Friday off the Indio for the night and homeward bound on Sat. for the end of another trip.

Until next time - safe travels wherever you go!

17 Bottle Day

Another beautiful day in the Sonoma County Wine Country. The day starts in the high 50s and climbs to about 90 degrees, to make for a perfect day. We started things out with a hike on a nature trail here at the park, then took off for the Dry Creek Wine Trail. Our first stop was Fritz Winery that was up on a hill with a pretty view. Their wines were pretty good and purchased a bottle for our collection.

This sure has been a great time of year to visit this area with all the vineyards at their peak. The abundance of grapes on the vines is amazing. It just gets you in the mood to drink wine.

We moved on to Sbragia Family Vineyards where there was another great view from the top of the hill.  This also produced another purchased bottle of wine for our collection.

Then we stopped at the Ferrari-Carano Winery because the grounds were suppose to be spectacular, which they were. But Jim found some wine that really hit the mark, so ended up with walking out with 6 bottles.

Here is a view as you are walking up to the winery.

 A view out from the top.

There was also a separate gardens area with this little waterfall and pond. The whole place was immaculately landscaped and just beautiful

We visited several wineries along the Dry Creek Road and W Dry Creek Road, purchasing some wines along the way. Not every winery we tasted at had wines to our liking.

 Here is the official greeter at the Wilson Winery.

Jim anxious to get inside the Dry Creek Vineyard for a tasting. They had some nice wines and came out with a couple.

By the end of the day, we had purchased a total of 17 bottles of wine. And we still have another day to hit the wine trails.

At the end of the hot and dusty trail we enjoyed an evening around the camp fire.

Wine Tasting Day 2

Monday brought a cloud cover with a little fog, but it would burn off late morning. We headed for the coast, since it was somewhat of a dreary day to start with anyways. Drove down to Santa Rosa and from there headed west through Sebastopol over to Bodega Bay. Drove around the bay then ended up at The Tides for some lunch.

We shared a bowl of clam chowder, then we each had an order of fish-n-chips. This place was quite pricey as the total came to $75 including tip. Can't say that I've had a lunch that cost that much before. But the food was good with big portions.

Fishing vessels were coming back in with the mornings catch.

From Bodega Bay, we headed north along the coast to Jenner, then turned inland through Guerneville then headed south to Forestville where we stopped at the Russian River Winery for tasting. We couldn't find anything there we liked. 

We continued south back towards Sebastapol and after about 4 more wineries of not liking their wines we decided to go back up to the Dry Creek/Alexander Valley region where the grapes grow in a warmer climate and produce the wines more to our liking.

We stopped at Simi Winery but still was not satisfied.

Hit a couple more with no success, then stopped at Clos Du Bois and ended up with 2 bottles. In Geyserville we stopped in this small tasting room for Meeker Vineyards and found another wine we liked so walked out with 2 more bottles. I think we are going to need to purchase another wine refrigerator at home or dig a wine cellar. Our collection of wines keep growing.

Bring on the smores! After a dinner of roasting hot dogs on the fire, we of course had to have the full experience and indulge in smores to end another tough day on the wine trail.

"Got Her Squeezed In"

We enjoyed Friday and Sat. at Barrett-Jackson watching the exciting action of the auction. We didn't see anything that we just couldn't live without driving home, so came away from the car auction without bidding on vehicle. The one that Jim really would have liked, a 1968 Shelby GT500 E Continuation Fastback that went for $150,000 (+ the 10% buyers commission). A little over the price range for us. All in all, we had a very enjoyable, learning experience.

We left early yesterday morning, hopefully to get down the mountain before all the traffic, heading for destination 3, Cloverdale, CA. Why Cloverdale? Wine, wine and more wine. We have been to Napa valley visiting wineries, so here we are to experience Sonoma County wineries. The only RV park we could find in the area was the KOA in Cloverdale. But it is a tight squeeze-getting into the park from the freeway through parking the coach. The road back into the park was a narrow, mostly one lane, curvy, low hanging trees that we brushed through. Then the park itself is quite tight, roads not built for our size of coach, but Jim "squeezed her in."

After we got parked, set up, Jim was ready to hit the trail - the wine trail that is. Our first stop was Silver Oak, it cost $20 for 4 tastings, though nice place was not to our tastes. So onward we went.

The next stop was Geyser Peak, here we found several good wines and walked out with some bottles.

The area that we are at is called Dry Creek. Out next stop was Pedroncelli Winery where we purchased a couple of their wines also.

All the grape vines have lush, dark blue/purple, beautiful grapes hanging. Their harvest time is near.

Then we stopped at Truett-Hurst Winery which was our best experience. They had a guitarist, crackers and cheese along with great wines. We purchased several.

 Truett-Hurst was located right on the creek with a beautiful setting.

There were flowers, peach trees, and these bright sunflowers. 

We finally found our way back to the motorhome after a couple more stops that were not to our liking. We set up the Weber grill in a nice shady area along side the coach, got the pork roast on and sat back enjoying the area. When the sun went down we had an open fire in the fire pit. Enjoyable evening in the country.

This morning we woke up to overcast skies (should burn off) and a little bit of fog. This is the view we have from our coach.

Today we will be out exploring more of the area.

Auction Day One

The auction didn't start until 2pm which we didn't know, so we got there at 9am thinking it was starting earlier. So walked around for awhile, then wasted some time at the casino, had lunch, then went into the auction area. Then they were running late, so the car auction actually didn't start until 3:00 when it went live on SPEED TV (look for us to be on TV). The place was packed with people, but we had found a pretty decent seat about 20 rows from the stage. Nothing really exciting went across the block on day one, usually the lower priced cars.

Some of the bidding did get a bit wild, going so fast I couldn't keep up with the bids.

Finally about 5:45 we decided we had sat there long enough and headed back to the RV and watched the balance of the days auction on TV.

Day two (today) should bring better, more expensive cars. Sat. is the best day when they present the best cars of the auction. We will head on down about noon today. (We know when it is scheduled to start today.) The RV park we are staying in is about 10-15 miles from the convention center, so only takes us about 20 minutes to get there.

Auction Preview Day

Yesterday, Wed., was preview day for the Barrett-Jackson auto auction. There were cars, cars and more cars to look at.

These pictures show just a very small portion of the cars.

Here is where they were setting up for the big Opening Gala last night. We went, partook in wine and food and listened to a great band. Then they changed bands and the music wasn't good, so we headed back to the motorhome. But the food was great and enjoyed a couple of hours of great music.

Jim looking at a Cobra.

 After walking through all the cars at the auction, we headed downtown to experience the Hot August Nights. Talk about people and cars - what a show and it's only Wed. I can imagine what it will be like over the weekend.

The whole downtown was closed off and cars were everywhere - any make or model you would like.  Bands playing on the street corners. Concession stands everywhere.

After walking all the way (probably over 3 miles) from the Atlantis Casino (where the convention center is located) to downtown, we (maybe I should say "I") were tired, so took the bus back to the Atlantis Casino. Headed back to the RV to change for the big gala event.

Today the auction starts, so will be heading down there shortly to experience our first live auction.

Destination Two

We made it to destination two, Boomtown (just outside of Reno on I-80) after 325 grueling miles through construction, tight lanes, traffic, curves and mountainous roads.

Yesterday, we played golf at Valley Oaks Golf Course in Visalia. It's a muni that is pretty flat, wide fairways and was a pleasant round. Jim shot a 79 and I had 95. Then we went for a drive out in the farming area - ran across a small winery so did some tasting and bought a couple of bottles of wine, they were quite decent.

After we got the motorhome settled we headed for the Boomtown casino. Nothing much happened there, so went down to where the action is taking place. What's happening in Reno? HOT AUGUST NIGHTS! Classic cars and rock-n-roll. Plus Barrett-Jackson auto auction is this Thur.-Sat. Jim wanted to experience this since he watches it on TV all the time. So we are signed up as bidders to get full access. Here are some of the action at the Atlantis Casino parking lot.

This is the trunk of the above car. You can see how shiny it was with the reflection. I was trying to get a picture of the beautiful picture in the paint.

There was a stage with a band playing.

Jim checking out the cars.

Tomorrow, we get to get into Barrett-Jackson to view all vehicles that are up for sale.