Wine Country Heat Wave

As you can see, I'm trying to catch up a couple of missed days. I had been under the impression that I wouldn't have internet acces at the Bed & Breakfast that Gi had booked for us in Ferndale, just south of Eureka, CA. That proved incorrect, but what did happen was that I was so tied last night that I fell asleep in the middle of transferring photos from the camera to the computer. Hence, you're seeing multiple posts under a single date.

Anyway, Tuesday morning started with calls to BMW shops in Santa Rosa (on our way to the coast) and Roseville (the opposite direction). I got an answering machine in Santa Rosa -- they did call back later and sounded very nice. However, A&S Motorcycles in Roseville immediately squeezed me into their morning schedule. Great service, impressive dealership. I'd be happy to use them all the time if I were local. Certainly, it seemed like every California Highway Patrolman that needed a bike serviced that day also pulled in, and most were happy to chat a bit.

We didn't get out of the shop until about 2PM, and then had to backtrack 40 min to Davis in order to pickup CA 128, which runs from Davis to Winters, twists through the coast range past Lake Berryessa, and dumps into Napa Valley near Rutherford. The road from Winters to Rutherford was absolutely MADE for motorcycling. I really had a great time breaking in the new tires. Fortunately every CHP unit I saw was tied up with other duties as I came by.



The dry, hot California summer has definitely settled into the hills, and I'll admit to wishing that we could stop for a quick dip in Berryessa. There were quite a few boats in the lake, and the river below the dam was crowded too -- a sure sign that the heat was on. CA 128 turns north when it gets into Napa Valley, so Gi and I just continued following it past vineyard after vineyard, on up through Calistoga and eventually to Geyserville, where we met Hwy 101. As is normal for this time of the year, Napa Valley felt like an oven, so it wasn't any great surprise to see when we pulled over for a Gatorade in Hopland an electronic billboard proclaiming that the current temperature at about 4 PM was 100 degrees. Frankly, we couldn't get north soon enough at that point.





However, we till had 4 more hours to ride. Hwy 101 was almost all two-lanes the last time I was on the road to Eureka (about 40 years ago), but now it's mostly four-lane punctuated with brief two-lane stretches. About an hour later, after passing through Ukiah, we hit Willits, which bills itself as gateway to the redwoods. (Mostly a gate that you want to get past as soon as possible.) Unfortunately, or fortunately (as it turned out), I was first in line behind some guy towing a big travel trailer, but as we left Willits I got a wide spot in the road and slipped past him before a long line of oncoming traffic shut down passing for awhile. It was great -- we pretty much had the road to ourselves for a long while we ran alongside the Eel River and then eventually came to Humbolt Redwoods State Park. We took a little detour off the four-lane to drive a stretch of the old two-lane Hwy 101 known as the Avenue of the Giants. It was Gi's first time seeing coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), and she was as wowed as any first-timer.

Anyway, it was getting late, and although I had alerted Paula at the Shaw House Inn B&B in Ferndale that we would arrive late, I had to pick up the pace a bit to make sure that we could still get a meal. If you ever travel this way, I highly recommend the B&Bs in Ferndale. It's a few minutes off Hwy 101, and that makes all the difference in the relaxation quotient. It's on the historical register because of all the Victorian mansions built by the timber barons that cleared the local old-growth forests to build San Francisco, and several of the mansions, including the one we stayed in, have been converting into beautiful B&Bs. Besides the hospitality industry, dairy farming is pretty much the name of the game here. Perfect climate, lots of green, green grass -- I'm pretty sure the local cows were used for those cheese commercials noting that happy cows come from California.



We managed to slip into town just ahead of sunset, and were treated to a field of yellow canola flowers. We got to the B&B at 8 PM on the dot and after checking in, we headed to Curly's Grill at the Victorian Inn where I had one of the best meals I can recall in a long while -- Curried Black Bean soup, braised lamb shanks, onion rings and a cold beer. It's no wonder I slept like a rock.