A study in constrasts

Started the day with breakfast in Calistoga and looking up the nearest Suzuki dealer to get the bike serviced.

The Napa valley is pretty amazing, some incredibly old vineyards there, with buildings/tasting rooms that go beyond opulent.

The entire valley is scented with the sweetness of just crushed grapes. They're starting the fall crush and many vineyards have signs up stating "Crushing today" Suppose it's for the tourists benefit. I didn't stop to find out.

All too soon I was in Fairfield at the Suzuki dealership. In this case Stealership is an apt name given the price they charged me for an oil change. Oh well, it needed to be done. Found a great mexican place for lunch and then hit the road for Yosemite Nat'l Park. Back to the prairie land as I crossed the state just below Sacramento. This part of the state is a giant dust bowl, if it wasn't for aggressive irrigation, the place would truly be a desert. However, once east of Lodi and near the Camache reservoir the road started getting twisty. Much fun! I have to say DAMN! there's some twisty passes in this state. The road up to Priest was intense! Started out at 910ft above sea level and rose to 2500ft in that little bit of twistiness.

I made it to Yosemite just as dark was setting in, at that point I was already getting nervous due to a few bambi sightings along the way. They have a nasty habit of bolting in front of bikes and neither of us would win in a collision. Even more disturbing, rain was starting to drizzle in as I approached the gate station into the park. After chatting with the Ranger on duty about the temperature at night(getting down to +5C), the impending rain, the lack of restaurants/groceries for dinner, I decided to head back to Groveland, 39km west of the park. I'm now holed up in the Hotel Charlotte, got the last room too! Very cute place, definitely a "date place" for a return trip. :)

What was really amazing was once I started to climb into the mountains how the air changed. From smelling dust and the associated smells of dry grass, burnt off grass, to the smell of sage and pine trees. I've never smelt pine so intense as today(not counting opening a bottle of pine-sol)

A few pics from the past couple of days.


Between Redding and the Hwy 20 exit along the I5


...and the wine is bottled poetry




my poor broken crash bar


Don Pedro Lake