Getting lost in wine country...

We decided to adjust our plans and leave the interstate on Monday taking a ride trough wine country in Napa Valley. Our GPS came in handy in getting us started in the right direction as there were few signs directing us from highway 128 to highway 29 and to the town of Napa. We stumbled onto the visitor center, got a limited bit of information from one of the workers there who suggested we abandon our current route in favor of The Silverton Trail which runs through the middle of wine country and is lined with wineries for miles as you travel north through the region. What we failed to obtain was information on fuel for both the bike and ourselves, so despite her best efforts we were only slightly more informed when we left than when we arrived. Several wrong turns and checks of the maps and we were back on the original route in search of lunch which we found at a deli in the town of Yountville. From there we followed the signs to Silverton Trail which was just as she had promised, but I spent much of my time trying to figure how much farther we could go before running completely out of gas.

We must have looked helpless as we sat at a crossroad trying to decide (left or right?) because a local stopped to check on us and directed us to the nearest station, following us and even stopping as we gassed up to give further directions to our next stop. Unfortunately, his guidance was lost on us as we somehow missed the next turn, sending us an hour or more out of our way. A stop at a winery for further instructions helped to finally get us back on track. It was not a total loss as our failures allowed us to see a good variety of sights on this day. Another rest stop in the town of Hanna to review the map and comfort one another that we were indeed on the right track... we still had to cross back over some mountains which took us along the north shore of one of the largest lakes we have ever seen. The heat and lack of certainty of our location most of the day meant we were mentally exhausted by the time we found our hotel in Willows California, but now we have only 3 EASY days to get to Seattle on Thursday..