Baja Bound, Part 5

Garberville California to Healdsburg California

One of those amazing trees in the Redwood Forest, California

Tight fit to get the truck through.

We left Garberville on a sunny but crisp (6 C) morning.

We had a wonderful drive on Hwy 101 taking in some more of the Redwood forest continuing in direction Legget. We also tried to drive through a tree?!

Arriving in Legget we decided to head for the coast again and took Hwy 1. Well... let me tell you this highway is not for the faint at heart.

The road is like a grape wine, up and down, around the bend, in circles, just dizzy thinking about it.

Sure glad we did not have the 5th wheel trailer with us. We finally reached the coast, beautiful but very narrow road, a bit tiring to drive.

Along this road the coast lends itself for surfing, and we have seen many surfers out there. Looks really cold. Mendocino is a nice seaside village.

Just past the town of Manchester we have had enough of windy roads and decided to head inland.

Beautiful Coast line

Rough driving in this back country

We took Mountain View road from Manchester to Hwy 128. Wow, talk about a cow trail, this was so narrow there is no need for a center line, it is only one lane.

With incredible steep grades and 180 degree curves, this is probably the most trying road, incredible.

It was a pretty country side, but it will be a long time coming before we drive that road again.

Once back on 128 and then 101, we both took a deep breath. We sure experienced wonderful vistas today, but the roads will get no compliments.

Eventually we arrived in Healdsburg and checked into the Best Western.

Here is a tip, ask hotel staff if they have any complimentary or 2 for 1 wine tasting passes.

Wine tasting can cost up to $30-40, most common $10-15. We got 6 passes. If you buy some wine, most of the time they wave the charges.

More pictures here from this part of the trip.

Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley

The next day, October 17th we did the wine touring thing. First things first, we had to do our morning walk for 45 minutes  through some pretty parts of Healdsburg.

Wonderful metal sculpture.

Sonoma Valley

I got the truck going and I looked at the gauges like I always do and there was no or very little oil pressure!!! Panic sets in, and I checked the oil six times.

Lots of oil and I just had it changed. This is my baby, it can not happen. I paced back and forth on the parking lot, a small cloud over my head.

I then got in the truck again and started it up.... I somehow looked at the temperature gauge, its all fine, the motor is not warm yet so the gauge is not showing anything and of course the oil pressure is just fine :))

We first headed north on the road and toured both the Sonoma and later the Nappa Valleys. One winery was just down the road from our hotel, The Seghesio Family Vineyards.

They have some great wines. I am not a Chardonnay fan but they have a fantastic one.

Also their Venom is absolutely incredible. The wine is made from Sangiovese grapes.

This vineyard was first planted in 1910 by the founder of the winery, Edoardo Seghesio. It is the oldest Sangiovese vineyard in North America.

Liz in Sonoma Valley

Lots of Olive trees

Town of Napa, California

We really liked the Sonoma valley and visited several wineries including Rodney Strong.

Rodney Strong was a ballet dancer in New York in his early days, before he became a winemaker. The Pinot Noir  from Rodney Strong is wonderful.

The Rodney Strong winery has a really good self guided tour with lots of interesting information.

We later drove the Napa Valley and enjoyed the valley, but we do prefer the Sonoma Valley.

The town of Napa seems to be suffering from the downturn in the economy.

Many stores are empty and closed. There were a lot for sale and for lease signs.

We hope this will change in the future.

For more pictures from this part of the trip, have a look at our web album.

Happy travels,

Anders and Liz


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