Tag Archives: Napa

A Nomadic Sweep Through Familiar Lands: Month #28 in NorCal

Posted on by
Reply

While last month was all about getting off the grid and exploring new places, we’ve spent this month getting back onto the grid in familiar lands. The shift wasn’t because we couldn’t bare life outside of developed campgrounds no hookups. Quite the opposite! However, it was just that time of year to put in a trip to the Bay Area to visit family and friends for Halloween and Diwali.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

Grass Valley, California: Home on the Road #90

Figures. Just when we start trying to narrow down our list of potential plop-down places, we end up adding one more. This was our second stay in Grass Valley, but it resonated with us more this time than last. It’s halfway between the mountains/ski resorts of Tahoe and big city offerings of Sacramento, yet chill and un-trafficy. There’s ample and affordable land here and mutually agreeable weather for much of the year too.

  • Highlights: Alpaca show to welcome us to our fairground campground, getting to know the downtown areas of both Grass Valley and Nevada City better, meeting up with my gnome friend Liz at a brewery/pumpkin patch, perfect fall weather with colorful leaves, biking around Tahoe and the ski resorts
  • Lowlights: Not much coming to mind, which is why this place became post-it-note-worthy

Napa, California: Home on the Road #91

While most people go to Napa for the wine, we go for the closest reasonable campground to visit my husband’s family. This is actually the third time we’ve stayed in Napa during full-time camper life, but we stayed at a different park this time that was almost half the price of our previous spot. This home on the road involved a lot of annoying driving and some crazy smoke due to the latest NorCal wildfire, Camp Fire, in Butte County. We were fortunately at a safe distance from the closest fires, but I still had nightmares of flames coming toward the RV in the middle of the night and trying to decide what to grab before running out the door.

  • Highlights: Dog-friendly Halloween winery party at Trefethen Family Vineyards where we did a trio costume of “s’mores,” our familiar bike routes along vineyard roads, celebrating Diwali with the in-laws, stuffing face with good friends, being a tourist on a fun day in San Francisco, being a safe 2.5 hours from the latest NorCal wildfire, letting Monkey play on a San Francisco beach
  • Lowlights: The usual traffic/crowds/costs that you expect from Napa/Bay Area, crowded campground with annoying neighbors, more devastating California wildfires and the smoke and haze they sent our way

Yosemite National Park, California: Home on the Road #92

This was our second trip together to Yosemite, but our first visit to this oh-so-popular national park was over six years ago. As you’ve likely gathered from following my camper life journey, we detest crowds…especially while spending time in nature. So, we planned our Yosemite trip for (1) the week before Thanksgiving to beat the holiday rush and (2) only on weekdays to avoid the weekend crowds.

  • Highlights: Impressive mountain views from the campground, 12 miles of dog-friendly paved paths for exploring the park with Monkey, biking around the park, low crowds due to the time of year, seeing a mama bear and two cubs cross the road in front of us hiking at a safe distance
  • Lowlights: Being cold 24/7 due to no electric hookups and limited propane for occasional heat, public showers, sub-par photo ops due to cloudy days and wildfire haze

With our remaining time in Yosemite, the husband and I are going our separate ways to do some epic solo hikes. I’ll pick up with that in next month’s report.

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

  • ‘Tis the season for everything pumpkin! My favorite, although the West is notoriously awful for having pumpkin beer. Of all the breweries I go to, not once did I find pumpkin craft beer on draft this fall. Sad times we’re living in.

  • For Diwali this year, I experimented with henna for the first time. I’ve always been curious to try it but too intimidated to go to a salon. My sister-in-law showed me the basics and created a design on my left palm. So, I picked up where she left off and did some feet designs.

  • We finally went “all out for Halloween this year with costumes and festive plans. It’s my favorite holiday, but we’ve skimped on it the past two Halloweens due to being over-consumed with everything camper life entails. It felt awesome to put some gore on my face again.

  • Thanks to living in civilization for a while, we’ve been able to get in some good indoor climbing. In fact, we were able to hit up gyms in Grass Valley, Berkeley, and Napa. Feeling pretty strong, despite the fact that I didn’t actually complete this upside-down bouldering route (womp womp).

It’s articles like this that make me want to move on from camper life. Over a million “modern nomads” are now living out of their RVs? I’m glad I got into it back when I did because clearly this lifestyle has become too common and this niche too saturated! I’m half kidding and half not kidding 🙂

However, the decision of what to do post-camper-life has been hanging over my head in a big way. I’m so comfortable in my current routines with working from the road and moving every couple weeks that anything else scares the crap out of me. I know that sounds silly and that if anything, this lifestyle should make me more adaptable for whatever comes next. But I’m still feeling resistant, non-committal, and dragging my feet.

Shopping for our next home…where does Monkey want to live?

Yet change is healthy, and we never intended for this little lifestyle experiment to last forever. So, I mustered up some courage to narrow down (and share) my personal “maybe” list to these seven regions (in no particular order):

  • Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • San Luis Obispo, California
  • Boise, Idaho
  • Cedar City, Utah
  • Wenatchee, Washington
  • Bend, Oregon
  • Grass Valley, California

Looking Ahead to Next Month

We actually didn’t have a plan for this upcoming month until just about a day or two ago. We were waiting to see if Tioga Pass would be closed by this time of the year, but with no snow in the forecast, it seems good to go. I always enjoy getting to be more spontaneous with trip planning at this time of year (versus the summer) because campgrounds are now so rarely booked up in advance.

The current plan is to cross over into Nevada because it’s a state that we honestly haven’t explored much beyond Reno and Vegas. There’s something called the Extraterrestrial Highway in remote Nevada that’s been calling our names for a while now. Also, I’m looking forward to spending Thanksgiving in the middle-of-nowhere and hopefully staying warm with some electric hookups because well, these fingers and toes aren’t gonna warm themselves.

My new Diwali outfits put my usual hiking clothes to damn shame.

Catch up with the journey:

Making Our Way Up California (yes, again): Month 19 on the Road

Posted on by
Reply

Last month, I left off with our nomad journey in Yuma, Arizona, a familiar place where we bought this RV we’ve been living in for the past year. Month #19 of this journey was spent in California and mostly in places that we already visited within the past year.

After having different scenery every two weeks, it’s weird being back in the same places. But the simple fact that everything isn’t new and needs to be figured out is kind of relaxing and helping us with our goals to slow down and not stressing out over constant trip planning.

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch of homes on the road.

San Luis Obispo, California: Home on the Road #60

Unlike most places within the last year and a half, we visited SLO with a mission. We stayed in nearby Oceano, California last May and began to fall in love with the area. So, we make plans to spend another couple weeks here, this time in El Chorro Regional Park, which was about halfway between SLO and Morro Bay.

  • Highlights: Great downtown area with weekly farmers’ market festival, rock climbing gym and film documentary, breweries galore, super easy traffic, bike lanes everywhere, running along the beach at Morro Bay, free live performances, Oceano sand dunes nearby, finally touring the famous Hearst Castle
  • Lowlights: Disappointing news from a real estate agent about how hard it is to find land to plop a camper onto (without a house) around these parts

Napa, California: Home on the Road #61

Unlike SLO, I have zero desire to live long-term in Napa or in the Bay Area of California. We stayed in Napa at the Expo Fairgrounds in town last summer and found ourselves back here again….not only in the same campground but in the very same campsite too. The main reason for staying in Napa this time around wasn’t a wine vacation but rather to spend some time with my in-laws.

  • Highlights: Great bike lanes along vineyard roads, perfect weather, seeing Reefer Madness the Musical in Vallejo, visits with the in-laws that went well, making origami boats, old-school rock climbing gym, new breweries opened up in town, catching an Olympic curling match at a dive bar since our RV cable sucks, celebrating Monkey’s 4th birthday / 2-year adoption day
  • Lowlights: Awful traffic at all times, the insane price of wine tastings, expensive everything, still way too many wineries to choose from (that one’s for you, Lara, if you’re reading this)

Grass Valley, California: Home on the Road #62

We made a point to stay in Grass Valley for a few days for one reason and one reason only: snow sports. It’s been a couple years since I’ve dusted off my old snowboard, but I broke it out again to hit up the resorts nearby. Fortunately, this didn’t include breaking any bones and only being very mildly sore. We’re also celebrating Valentine’s Day here by going out to a Hawaiian poke & BBQ restaurant for dinner in nearby Nevada City. For the rest of the week, there are possibilities of more snowboarding or perhaps snowshoeing with Monkey instead for some variety and dog inclusion.

  • Highlights: Spacious and quiet campground among tall trees and few neighbors, a fun ski resort day, getting NBC on the RV antenna to watch the Olympics 
  • Lowlights: Cold nights close in the 30s, still being a pretty crappy snowboarder

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

  • While staying in SLO and going for a run, we passed by a developing botanical garden and stopped by. The place was clearly in need of some volunteers, and volunteering is something we’ve been interested in doing but never seem to make time for. So, one morning, we ditched computer work and opted for manual labor instead, clearing away branches and debris and loading everything onto carts. There’s something very satisfying about working outside that typing eight hours per day just doesn’t provide. I’d love to find a way to work outdoors (and get paid for it somehow) for half my time and write for the other half.

  • Collecting souvenirs is a fun part of travel, but finding space for a bunch of crap in a tiny house is not. I’ve been collecting (space conscious) iron/sew-on patches for a few years from places I’ve enjoyed and shoving them in drawers, thinking someday I’d come up with a really cool craft project to display them. But for now, they’re new fridge decorations! I taped up as many as would fit for a little camper decor ‘til a better idea comes along.

  • Sometimes my work feels like a lost cause…like I’ll never catch up and get ahead. I’m working too much and feeling burnt out, but I’m often not sure how or where to scale back or whether that would be a totally regrettable decision. But today, I actually turned down some work and it felt oddly satisfying and like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

  • Last month, I introduced you to my lifelong Cabbage Patch companion, Isabelle. While in storage, she was wearing a dress way too short for any 33-year-old. So, I sewed her some pants! Now she matches our bedroom curtains because I made the pants with leftover curtain fabric.

  • We bought new dishes for the camper! Goodbye old scratched-up plastic crap. We fancy now.

  • Yes, our camper is nice and only a year old. But that doesn’t mean that things aren’t falling apart already. We’re slowly realizing why some campers are so much more expensive than other: craftsmanship and quality materials. It seems ours wasn’t really made for full-time living, so things keep breaking. Are any campers made for full-time living? The kitchen sink leaks, the floor squeaks, the propane alarm keeps going off, and I’m pretty sure that the shower floor is going to collapse any day now (which is going to be incredibly awkward).

Looking Ahead to Next Month

I’m really looking forward to Month #20 for a couple reasons. One, we’ll finally make it as far north as Eureka, California, an area we’ve never been to and failed to get to last year. Two, we’ll finally make it into Oregon! Goodbye Cali, it’s been fun, but it’s time to move on and take this camper journey to the Pacific Northwest.

Catch up with the journey:

Lucky #13: A Recap of Nomadic Life One Year & One Month In

Posted on by
Reply

Well, our one-year anniversary of life on the road has come and gone, and we’re still out here in California. We’ve actually been paying comparatively unfair attention to this state, considering that we’ve been lurking around here for over six months. With this slow pace, we’re only staying at two or three new places each month, but I’d honestly hate moving any faster with all the setup, take down, and research involved in each relocation.

We’ve started working on a printed photo book project with highlights from our first year to keep for ourselves and gift to our families. It’s in the tech planning stages now, which is my other half’s territory. But soon, it’ll be my turn to start adding poems, stories, and antidotes about each of our first year of homes on the road.

Speaking of that…

Here’s a quick recap of this past month’s batch:

Napa, California: Home on the Road #43, Continued

  • Highlights: Day trip to Santa Rosa to visit my gnome collector friend, biking to a wine cave tour, guided tour of the DiRosa Art Museum and home, trying to solve a 1915 murder mystery and treating ourselves to a fancy dinner on board the Napa Valley Wine Train, free model railroad exhibit next to our campground, observing the happenings of a Latino (human only) circus next to our campground
  • Lowlights: How expensive everything is in general, 105 degrees, very small laundry facilities, traffic everywhere

Mendocino, California: Home on the Road #44 

  • Highlights: Incredible and dramatic coastal views, seeing a dozen seals hanging out on rocks, coastal hikes in areas where dogs are allowed, the awesome trails and flowers at the dog-friendly Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, nice coffeehouse nearby for WiFi work and photo downloads (hence there being so many in this blog post!), free jazz shows and great beer at North Coast Brewery, catching a performance at the Mendocino Theatre Company, big arts community with galleries and classes, beating the inland heat of 100 degrees in favor of more like 60 degrees, creepy mystery novel-style fog pretty much every day, no traffic anywhere
  • Lowlights: Lack of sun and warm days, trailer park-style RV camping with 3am domestic fights and close neighbors with way too many kids, state parks that don’t allow dogs on hiking trails, crappy campground WiFi, learning that the iconic sea glass of Fort Bragg is really just litter and trash, no laundry facilities and running out of skivvies, very few bike lanes or sidewalks anywhere, lots of vagabonds/hitchhikers lurking about

Bodega Bay, California: Home on the Road #45

  • Highlights: Going sailing on the Pacific waves, front window view of boats in a marina, biking to Bodega Head, uncrowded beaches (Pinnacle Gulch, Point Reyes National Seashore), checking out the creepy film sites from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds, minimal traffic
  • Lowlights: The ridiculously twisty-turny Highway 1 route to get here in a monstrosity on wheels, discovering 2 tears in the seam of our inflatable kayak and not knowing how to fix it, the awful campground plumbing system making mechanical noises next to our bedroom and causing sleepless nights, very little sunshine, nothing much going on in tiny towns, expensive campground

This Month’s Ramblings from the Road

In no particular order, these are some random thoughts that came to me and that I jotted down over the course of last month on the road.

  • We had a pantry moth infestation in Napa and had to throw out all of our food from the cupboards. To stay sane throughout the ordeal, we tried to keep track of how many moths each of us killed per day as a competition. And if we accidentally ate any of the moth larvae, well, we didn’t get sick. Bonus!

  • Speaking of moths, after attending a live show of the storytelling podcast, “The Moth,” we decided to give storytelling a try for ourselves. We chose the topic, “lost,” out of a hat and have both been working on 5-minute true stories to tell each other, the dog, and our stuffed creatures.

  • I started this trip with a Fitbit and now wear a Garmin GPS watch every day. It’s still helping me get more exercise on most days, and I also use Monkey as an excuse to stay in reasonably okay shape.

  • Most people don’t start planning for Christmas this early, but when you live in a camper and a long way from your family, you kind of have to. Surprisingly, planning for Christmas has somewhat dictated the rest of our camper life journey and probable end date. For me, the driving force to stop RVing is to travel internationally. For S, it is to buy a cool piece of property and build something on it. But we’re both on-board with each other’s driving forces.

  • We miss our tent. It’s sitting in a tiny 5’x5′ unit in Yuma, Arizona. But as part of the overall route plan, we will pick it up, along with the rest of the tenting gear so we can have more backcountry experiences. And for my upcoming birthday, we’re tent camping in a rental as part of a multi-day whitewater rafting trip. Never tried to sleep with Monkey in a tent before, so that should be interesting to say the least.
  • It smells like sewer a lot in our camper lately. We thought there was a leak in our black tank hose and bought a new one, but alas no leak. It’s the worst on really hot days and when it gets too full of poop before dumping it. Glamorous, right?

  • We have a cluster of Post-It notes on our bedroom wall in the RV next to some maps that list places that we’d consider plopping down in after camper life. The Mendocino area is the most recent addition to that list. It’s remote, but not too remote. It’s cool and foggy, but there is some warmth and sun just a few miles inland in the forests. The landscape is amazing. There’s no traffic. And it’s more reasonably priced than elsewhere along the coast. The people are pretty freaking weird though.

  • I really enjoy small town theaters more than big-name, big-city productions. It feels like your attendance matters and that you’re supporting something good in a place that needs support. I also appreciate small crowds, no parking drama, low costs, and $5 drinks. We went to a show called “The Open House” at the Mendocino Theatre Company recently, which made me think of this.

  • A person walking with a dog (regardless of how cute the dog may look at you) is not an open invitation to invade a stranger’s space. Walking a dog does not translate to “Hey, come over and bother me for a while!” Why is this hard to understand? Unwelcome, dog-caused social interactions are a constant pet-peeve of mine that no one else seems to have. (That and letting your dog off leash in leash law areas so that I have to deal with the scuffle while you irresponsibly lolly-gag behind without a care in the world.) Headphones and snippy comments rarely deter the perpetrators, and no one would ever believe this little nut bag is a service dog no matter how convincing a fake vest was. Small town folk are the worst. Curmudgeonly rant over.

  • I’m still into sending out postcards. If you haven’t gotten one from me and would like that to change, email me your physical mailing address! – [email protected]

  • My immune system gets run down every month or two and I come down with a very predictable, mild sickness of headache and sore throat that lasts about two days. I never had this sort of thing before camper life. But before that, I would get sick less frequently but for longer and with more severe symptoms. I’ve found that the best cure is to not drink booze or exercise for a couple days, drink a bunch of water, and get more sleep. Always seems to do the trick. I’m thankful for my good health because regularly seeing doctors with this lifestyle would be a nightmare.
  • I recently downloaded a book on Kindle that has audio narration. This has been a great way for me to get through books faster and stay engaged in them even when I don’t have the focus to sit down and read.

Looking Ahead to Next Month

We only spent a week in Bodega Bay because of no campground availability and the high daily rates around here. Just yesterday, we arrived in the hot and sunny capitol city of Sacramento. From here, we’ll head to the tiny mountain town of Clio, California and then Reno, Nevada.

Time passes in a weird way when you’re on the road, but the calendar reminds me that I’m turning 34 (gasp!) in 10 days. I can’t think of a better way to beat the Central Cali heat than setting out on a multi-day whitewater rafting/tent camping trip on the American River. I’ve been a couple times before in West Virginia and British Columbia, but it’s been a while and I think it’ll be a great adventure to welcome in a new year.

To reward you for reading THIS FAR DOWN in this month’s blog post, here’s a rare photo of my little Monkey actually looking at the camera for a seaside selfie 🙂