The year is 2021. Let’s put that nasty COVID-ridden 2020 behind us. And for The Hamiltons and The Basecamp, it’s time to head off “on the road again” (as Willie Nelson would say. I looked it up – whilst the song itself is iconic and I can’t stop singing it, I had to use the google machine to find out who to credit for On the Road Again). This time we spent a whole month at home before setting off – partly for a chance to get stuff done, but also let’s face it, SoCal is not a bad option to spend the not-quite-spring days of March.
The plan this time is to head north. To infinity and beyond! Well, at least to the great unexplored wilderness of Alaska. Or… maybe not. Unfortunately for us, this pesky pandemic has other ideas. There’s a slight issue of having to drive through Canada to get to Alaska, and that border between the US and Canada ain’t opening any time soon. Plan B it is then. North from LA for now and take it from there.
Step one takes us from SoCal to NoCal (or should that be NorCal? NoCal sounds too much like a US state of weight watchers, not so appealing). Smack bang into the heady wine lands of the Sonoma and Napa valleys.
To say I’m in my element could be an understatement. Sitting in a picture perfect vineyard in the sun, with a cheese & charcuterie plate and a range of local vintages, and you have one happy chick. Throw in some cycling and it brings on a smug ‘I earned this’ mentality. Especially if I remain in one piece on the way back. (Happy to report I did!).
But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Along the way, we passed San Francisco and it felt like the decent thing to do to pop in for a quick visit. After parking up in Tiburon (not a character in a Shakespeare tragedy, actually a spit of land just north of San Fran), we took the ferry over to the big city, along with our bikes. Cities, especially tourist ones, can be busy places, so we didn’t hang around. It was a 20 mile bike ride back from downtown SF, over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge (woohoo, how cool is that!), and through Sausalito, stopping only for a cheeky ice cream.
Before you know it, it’s Monday and weekend vacation is over; work beckons. Week one of our 2021 Road Trip is based around the town of Petaluma in Sonoma County – co-working space, tick; campsite, tick.
Our makeshift office for the week was probably the biggest space from all our trips, at 9,000 square feet. It was bright, light and airy, not to mention virtually empty. Covid risk – low; all good.
That pizza will go down in history.
With sunrise around 6:45am and a work start time of 8am, trying to get a half decent morning walk in requires planning, precision and motivation of military proportions. Of course, there’s always after work, but then you’re competing with wine and cheese.
In the spirit of diversity, equity and inclusion, it seems wrong for wine to get all the limelight. After all, there’s some pretty good breweries around here too. So we spread the love and our patronage.
OK you Brits. Just a word of advice about this eating and drinking outside lark, which I believe is on your doorstep. All very well (maybe, sometimes, when it’s not raining) during the day. But believe me, standing around outside, at night, is just freezing. Heat lamps are your new best friend. Takeaway too.
Stone Brewing in Napa was the coldest windiest brewery EVER.
Even Darren was happy to chugalug and get the next beer to go.
Happy Easter everyone!