stinkyslinky

Olema & Bolinas, CA December 16-21, 2014 If at first you’re forced flooded to run away, return you must, that’s what we say. I’m not sure why I feel so Seussian…it must be the wine. In a reverse of fate we happily left rainy Napa for our old home in Olema. Over the hill we go again. As the old saying goes, home is where your hat lies or in our case where the leveling jacks are deployed. I don’t really wear a hat, although I am going through a tough hair growth phase so a hat would probably get the locals to take me a little more serious. It is kind of funny though, when you return to a place after leaving it. Something changes in your relationship with that place. It feels more homey the more often you visit. Bolinas is like that for us. This time we decided to do it right. We knew the water would be coming therefore our fist stop after setting up house was Point Reyes for some fancy muck boots and groceries. Let it rain. And rain it did. Between showers, we drove out to Point Reyes National Seashore for some elephant seal watching. We had a long and wonderful conversation with a fellow wildlife stalker. We made it back just in time to watch the Low Watters jam it out at Smiley’s Schooner Saloon, a good night. The next morning we watched the waters rise as the creek was breached once again. Oh the memories. We stayed on the ready but once the waters started to recede we took off. Bodega Bay was our destination. Unfortunately the road was flooded along the [...]

Napa, CA December 3-16, 2014 After the great flood comes beer, wine, and bad Mexican food. We ran from Olema after being nearly underwater and safely made it to Napa, CA. After set up we were starving so we headed out to find a food truck with good reviews. Yes there is an app for that. Unfortunately for our starving stomachs we could not find said food truck so we settled for another non-app version. Sadly we could not leave a crappy review because this truck really needed to be converted into a mobile latrine. Sometimes you win other times you end up paying dollars for pennies worth of food sludge. Oh well, moving on. Up next we decided to ease our noxiousness stomachs with some good brew. Napa is known for wineries so breweries are a little harder to find but with less clientele the service is fast and brewful. Good choice. Montezuma will have to have his revenge battling against a belly full of beer. Round one was rectified. We’ll call in a draw. This week we had Falcor, our towed car, scheduled for a transmission gasket change. So we dropped him off and headed to the Santa Rosa brewery. You might begin to see the theme of this week. When life gives you nothing but rainy days soak your sorrows in craft beer and wine. We are speaking from experience. After driving the new rental out and about we picked up a new mattress pad for the big rig. With the rental we drove around Napa gawking at all the vineyards and winos. There was so much wine and only so many liver cells to absorb it. I’m sure you know [...]

Cloverdale, CA November 19-26, 2014 From mountains to vineyards,  we descended our mystical mountain location for a taste of California wine country. Of course when we left it was raining…I know California really needs it. We drove over Lake Shasta and saw first hand the reality of the California drought. This large lake is now just a little river! The massive bridges seemed unnecessary, as the lake was dry. We will see if we can bring more rain to this drought stricken state. I can’t believe the rain is finally here! Yada..yada..yada. As we approached the coast we were happy to see more greenery, but the Russian River was not as mighty as we had hoped. We aptly set up shop and went to eat at a local Thai restaurant, and it did not disappoint. I’ll keep this post fairly short since for the next week all we really did is eat, drink, and genuinely be merry. We pickled our livers with the fresh taste of local wine tastings, and wow is there more than enough of the drink in the area. From underground caverns to wide-open vineyards, we perused, tasted, and brought a few bottles home. Neither one of us would consider ourselves winos but as with most things the more we try the more we buy. While in the area we also enjoyed Santa Rosa, which has some great breweries like the Russian River and 3rd Street Tap. It also has a nice historic downtown. We find that oftentimes walking the streets visiting the shops is the best medicine for over indulging. After all the gluttony we thought it would be nice to reconnect with spirit so [...]

Eugene, Oregon November 4-11, 2014 What a day. Over the mountain pass and through the woods to Eugene, Oregon we go. We left the coast because we had started growing mold and moss. I am not joking. So much rain! It was a rainy, misty morning, a dreadful kind of day.  But really it was just a typical fall/winter day in the drenched state. While traveling, just around noon a deer decided to dive into the front of our RV. Time slowed as we both watched him hit the front, tear through our bumper, roll under the front, gracefully catching his stride from under our house, and run off into the woods. What the hell? We stopped and assessed the damage. All cosmetic thanks to dramatically slowing down before impact, but still. WTF? Needless to say this week went to trying to figure out what we needed to do to get things fixed. We did manage to have a nice dinner downtown at a farm to table restaurant, Marche, and hit the Rogue Brewery while we were out. Kindy flew out to Atlanta for the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association’s annual veterinary conference while I discovered we brought a pair of mice with us from the coast, great. Luckily we were parked by a nice pizzeria, Coburg Pizza Company,  so Kindy knew I would at least eat well while she was gone. I did. Between catching mice and planning repairs the week flew by.

Exploring Northwest Oregon including Seaside, Cannon Beach, Astoria, and Portland October 2-21, 2014 We’ve gone Seaside. From the time we hit the beach, life just seemed to slip slowly by. Redbox movies were our first passion. Sometimes the road is void of television and movies become a distant dream. Civilized areas are where we catch up on using that big screen above our fireplace. Flying kites on Cannon Beach is what also sometimes happens. Don’t fight it, just let the wind guide it higher. We also really enjoyed viewing the life in the tide pools! Wizard was in his glory because the beach was only about a mile from our site so we regularly drove him over to frolic on the wide, long, empty beaches. Astoria was only about a fifteen-minute drive from Seaside so we spent some good quality time reliving The Goonies, where it was filmed. We hiked the Lewis and Clark Fort at Clatsop, Netul landing, and Fort Stevens looking for the treasures of One Eyed Willy but came up only with a handful of photos and wonderful memories. We also made a trip to Hillsboro for the local farmers market and that ended up being a return trip to Portland’s Powell’s bookstore. We love that store! Then it was back to Seaside for the Lewis and Clark Salt Works. We have followed Lewis and Clark for quite a while and we stop in and see their camps when time allows. We also enjoyed a mystical hike along the Clatsop Loop Trail in Ecola State Park. It gave us a beautiful view of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, but even more enlightening [...]