Got Wine?

Background:  This year my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  We had planned to FINALLY take that trip to Italy we had been talking about for 10 years.  The trip derailed yet again, and our back-up plan was to visit the California Wine Country.  Our vacation plans were basically non-existent until the end of September when I suggested we just go, pack a couple of suitcases and take to the road. And that's we did. 

No plans, no reservations, no itinerary. The weather had turned cold and rainy in our Oregon, so we were hopeful we could capture a few more days of rays.  Last Sunday was our first travel day. We headed for Eugene, Oregon, via I-5,  to get a Colin (our son) fix and then on to Southern Oregon where we stayed our first night.  We hit sunshine on Monday as we passed Ashland, heading for the border.  The drive was beautiful and we made good time on I-5, thankful for the "Ticket Bait" who drew attention from our occasional speed infractions, permitting us to literally "fly under the radar". 

Mistake #1:  "Let's take a shortcut"

This shortcut probably doubled our travel time from I-5 to Rte 101 and Sonoma.  On paper this appeared to be our best route. It began with a scenic drive to Clear Lake.  After we passed the lake, however, the drive and our moods changed dramatically. We were in some serious mountain driving, hairpin turns, narrow roads, winding switchbacks, climbing and descending. We knew we had to cross some mountainous terrain to get to the Sonoma Valley, but we were not prepared (and rested) for this particular adventure.  It was as if we had to climb each mountain between the two destinations, rather than going around a few of them. As I said it was quite scenic, but most of the time I was too petrified to look. There was some screaming. Needless to say the trip was laced with tension and we were quite spent when we finally hit 101 and rush hour in Santa Rosa. yea...


Mistake #2:  Let's use the GPS to find a restaurant for dinner!  

After checking into our motel, my husband was anxious to get something to eat.  "Let's just get in the car and drive down the street", he says.  "No, let's use my GPS" I say.  I took about an hour to search my GPS and the internet for a perfect restaurant.  We finally settled on one, loaded the GPS with our destination and headed out at approximately 6:30pm.  Darkness descended upon us, and our moods did not improve with each mile we traveled.  "I thought you said this restaurant was close", he says.  We got on and off a highway that was closed, in and out of lanes that ended, when finally we turned down a driveway. One driveway too soon, as it turns out. So we got back on the road and pulled into the parking lot of our closed and out-of-business restaurant. Some words were spoken in utter frustration and hunger. After turning around we ended at an Applebee's a couple of blocks from our motel.

To be continued....