5C's Que Pasa

The grand entrance.

This is the Darioush Winery, on the Silverado Trail. Simply stunning.  That is me in the pink.  This has been described as one of the most ostentatious edifices in Napa, it is a reconstruction of Persepolis.  The winery is owned by a wealthy Iranian.

A lot of Persian influence here. The labels are etched into the glass.  The winery has many priceless objects from Iran scattered about the interior.

There was so much to see within the winery and the gift shop was superb with small flat pieces of quartz edged with gold for sale as coasters. Then there were the gold goblets and so on.

The label on the back of the previous bottle.  This was one of our favorite places in our stay in Napa.

Once again I asked if could pay to simply sample the Sauvignon Blanc and was gifted with a taste.  Oh my, impossible to describe the best ever wine I have ever tasted.  I suggested to Colin that we might want to buy one bottle.  The fellow then offered us a taste of the Chardonnay.  He said that the SB was young, 2015, and would need about 3 months to settle but the Chardonnay ( 2014 ) was ready.  Again so many notes to distinguish and enjoy.  These wines sell out within a short time of being bottled and are only sold at the winery.

So here we were with less than $35.00 and neither of us had our Drivers License with us.  Nothing to do but carry on.

Up the road was the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellar not to be confused with the Stags’ Leap Winery. The placement of the apostrophe is a small variation as is their labels.

This was the second winery to win at the 1976  Paris Tasting for their Cabernet Sauvignon.

They only had one Chardonnay and three Cabernet Sauvignons on the Tasting Flight for $40.00. I asked to purchase a tasting of the Sauvignon Blanc and was given the taste at no charge even though it was not on the list. It was very good but no where near the previous winery.

Amazing how two Napa wineries won that year.  It certainly made a difference to the history of this valley.

Next stop was the lovely Silverado Winery up a small hill.

Lovely views from their patio. Once again I was gifted with a taste of SB.  I was beginning to feel bad as I didn’t even have enough money to buy anything.  But oh so much fun.

Not a fancy place at all and mostly underground. They only make the one wine, a red, called Quintessa. A single 750ml bottle of the 2013 is $175.00. The wine can only be purchased at the winery and they will ship but the specifics for shipping are several paragraphs long all pertaining to certain dates and the risk for heat shock and damage. One is advised to wait until the weather is shipping appropriate.

We made a quick stop at the Quintessa only because it was so similar to my name.

We pretty much loaded the car with a large Walmart shop including new lights for our Isla patio.  Then we stopped at Lowe’s.  I wanted some good soil to grow my kale and swiss chard in as last year was a dud.  We also bought some paint to brighten up a certain area of our site.  Stay tuned on those details once we get to Mexico.

Good thing we left the girls at home.

We are taking early morning walks and then once the sun has sunk behind the mountains yet another. It has been around 90F every day.

I suspect that we won’t be here to see this blossom open.

Last summer we did a kitchen and bathroom reno in the RV but never completed the job. It is on the to do list.

This is the bedroom and we think we won’t need to redo any of the woodwork however we did change out the door handles.

The new look.

I think these are much more modern looking. The brass on the old ones were turning green.

The girls are enjoying the heat, not the A/C so much but it is a necessity.

Our darling Carmeh.

Caeli, our little clown, although she looks somewhat pudgy.

Great sunset last night. We have no idea what all those tiny red lights are in the bottom left. We suspect that they might be red lights atop the many windmills that are in front of the Palm Springs airport runway which is to the far left of the shot.

We left Bakersfield at 8AM under the new time change. So much pollution or maybe just cloud cover but it did get worse and we wondered if there might be a fire nearby.

The drive went quickly and this was our welcome to the desert area.   Interesting to watch the work being done on the new windmill.

The Mohave Desert where a number of large aircraft are stored.

The giants.

In behind the smaller work bees.

Just down the road road a sea of water…..no, actually a sea of solar panels.  Both the sun and the wind are being harvested in this valley.

The descent into the San Bernadino area.

I knew there had been a fire but was this recent?

Very interesting smooth hills at the base of the mountains.

Where these pushed up because of variations of the earth or where they worn smooth by the wind over the years?

The pollution appeared once we descended into the valley.  Los Angeles was less than 60 miles ahead.

We had not been on I10 for long when we passed this accident. It had just happened, the police had not yet arrived.  Colin believes that this was the result of an unsuccessful merge.  A big ouch!

Welcome to Palm Springs.

I had been quoted $22.50 per night but it turned out that that was in the lower area with only 30 amps.

The upper area is $27.50 per night but includes sites that are larger and have 50 amps.  We were told to just find a site we liked and to set up and get back to the office with our site number.

It turns out that the upper area was pretty much empty and we could park anywhere we wanted to and with our backs to the sun…..it was 89F when we checked in at 2PM.

The sunset only got better but I did not bring the camera for our dusk walk.

Our day took us 225 miles.  Nice to be in one spot for the next week.

We weren’t sure we would make it but have every other time so Colin went for it. Sadly it was not possible and we were at an odd angle with the car jackknifed behind us.

It was not possible to unhook the car due to facing downhill and the position of the car and the strain on the tow hitch.

So Colin went back to the car and turned the wheel and tires and hence the direction of the car as I ever so slowly backed the RV. It was a slow motion ballet. After a few of those smooth moves I then had to torque the RV wheel to the left as hard as I could which was not easy and then turn and turn some more.   My arms were aching form the effort.  Finally I inched forward under Colin’s direction so that the RV could turn and miss hitting the sign. It was close but we did do it. Phew!

We were back on track within 10 minutes and enjoying the wonderful scenery despite the electrical wires.

The correct signage

The right turn after the signage. We took the same turn as the car on the right did. However our turn was in fact next to the white car on the left.  You can barely make out a sign behind the yellow turn right sign.

This is the sign that was hidden by the yellow 25 sign with the right turn arrow. You can just barely see the orange sign to the extreme left of the photo that was the indication of our right turn. So two right turns, one behind the other with poor signage. Bottom line, we got on the freeway and began to relax.

Some unexpected scenery.

We were going over this bridge but look at that smog. We actually have been in smog all day.

Hmmm….would this industry have anything to do with that pollution?

Some interesting road design.

Yup we had a problem alright.

There was a piece of metal that had plunged into the bumper of our tow car. The sparking of the metal being dragged along the interstate had caught that driver’s attention. Who knows what could have or would have happened next if he had not alerted us.

A lovely hole on the underside of the bumper.

Colin’s foot in relation to the piece of metal. Definitely something large enough to do some serious damage. Upon refection we both recall having seen this metal piece on the highway as we did our second and proper exit for I680. Colin says he that he quickly made an effort to center the RV over it but likely it got caught in the RV mud flap and thrown back to the car.

So we continued on with the journey.

Such a love in. The girls were so good all day today despite all the extra stop and goes.

Does anyone know why some of the vine crops are covered like this?

Finally after 319 long and weary miles we were able to pull up to Camping World in Bakersfield.

Silverado Trail in Napa to HWY 12 to I80 to I680 to I580 to I5 To Bakersfield…lots of moves today.  Plus we did it in only 319 miles so we only did an extra 19 miles, not bad for all the’ stuff ‘ we had to deal with.

My 10 year old cheddar. Very yummy at $40.00/lb.

A lovely flower. I also saw some Camellias, one of my favorites but the flowers were past their prime.

A grand entrance to a private home. Some very lovely homes here, both old and new.

Loved this tree at the Turnball winery.

Such a strong base for the grapes.

The girls hanging out in the playboy vineyard.

The Napa Valley Wine Train.

The bottles come in all sizes.

No idea what this is other than pretty.

It has been an intense four days but so much fun.

Last night we had dinner at home but tonight for our final evening in Napa we went back to our Mexican restaurant.  Our server whom we think is also the manager is David from Guadalajara.  He has been here for 7 years.

A large but very delicious quesadilla.

OMG!!! An oversize burrito mojado.  I did not eat it all.