After a few nights in Bodega Bay living the beach life, we headed inland toward the Napa wine country region to explore the many wineries we have come to love over the years.  The somewhat ironic thing about that is that we once visited Napa back in 2001 or so, prior to our having developed a true taste for good (expensive) wine.  In hindsight, we visited way too early at that time, well before our tastebuds could appreciate good wine.  Officially, we have our good friend, Gary Snow, to thank for that.  Snowsy, thanks for all the great wines you have shared with us, and thanks for expanding our alcohol horizons.  Now, here we are in the early stages of retirement, and on a strict senior budget, and we return to Napa only to find that we can’t fully appreciate all the fine wineries that we have come to love since our first visit because we have to watch the budget.  Why on earth didn’t we come here when we had all that extra discretionary income?  But we managed to splurge a little, and we ended up doing tours and tastings at Sterling, Silver Oak, and Coppola.  Three very different wineries for sure, and their approaches to the tastings were all very unique.  Initially, we spent three wonderful nights at the Bothe-Napa State Park on the south end of Calistoga.  The park’s operation has since been transferred to the county, and the county has done a great job updating the bathrooms and the facility as a whole.  Even the county employees that run the park were a breath of fresh air…unlike the CA state employees we had dealt with, the county folks at the campground were as about as helpful as one could imagine.  We snuck out on 2 mountain bike rides in the area, one at the Las Posadas Forest, and the other right outside our campground.  We watched our Patriots secure a victory on SNF at a local pub in downtown Calistoga just before the power was intentionally turned off by the local electric company.  Apparently, the winds were forecasted to pick up through the night, and the power company was concerned about arcing power lines starting a fire.  The folks in and around Napa are still fiscally, physically, and emotionally recovering from the devastating fires in the fall of 2017.  Speaking of that, as we were approaching Calistoga from the west, we ran into an area of intense development and new construction.  Our first thought was that it was an area booming with popularity, but we quickly determined that it was an area that was basically burnt to the ground during the 2017 fires.  Frankly, it was fairly sobering once we realized this.  It was clear that several hundred families had lost their entire homes in the fires, and had since been living in trailers on their properties as their new homes were being built.  We eventually learned that 2,800 structures were lost in the fires, which gave us a better perspective on why the power company was being so conservative on that windy, dry night in Calistoga.  Anyway, it was great to see the community in recovery, and to see it firsthand.  We connected with our good friends, Angela and Nate from PC, who were nearby at a friend’s birthday party in Folsom.  They had a few days to kill, so we coerced them into coming west to join us in wine country.  Angela and Nate are living the part-time vanlife, having restored a very cool Westfalia over the last year or so.  It was our first official van jamboree on the road, and looking forward to many more (strong hints to PJ and Mulls, Jenn and Mike, Carmen and Paul, and Angela and Nate). We visited a great little winery down the street from the campground called “Benessere”…credit given to MJ for bird-dogging this place out, and for persuading the young, blue-eyed host (Michael) to give us a tour and tasting without an appointment.  What a cool, small family winery with a great tour guide in Michael.  I know the girls appreciated staring into his piercing, baby-blue eyes as he educated us on the wines, the area, and the family that owned this little gem.  Frankly, I even found myself in a slight trance while looking at his baby blues.  For the record, my Dad has the only blue eyes in my family, and although I like to describe my eyes as being “piercing green”, the truth is that they are really just shit-brown in color.  Congratulations, Michael, for stealing all the attention from my wine bitches.  We made a quick trip south to the abutting town of St. Helena to do another wine tasting, only to learn that the winery was in another state, or even country, or at least not in Napa Valley.  I won’t say who did that research, but all I will say is that it wasn’t MJ, Nate, or me.  But it all happened for a reason, as we all found ourselves returning to our ultimate beverage of choice, beer.  We visited a boutique brewery in St. Helena called “Mad Fritz” and did a beer tasting of some very unique beers brewed in the old European style.   Take that Napa, we don’t need none of your fancy, over-priced grapes to have a good time!  I fired up the Traeger and cooked some Italian pizzas one night at the campground, and Angela made her famous pasta with cream sauce and mushrooms the other.  We may be homeless, but we still eat like kings and queens.  Thanks to Nate, we listened (via internet radio) to our beloved Red Sox beat up on the Houston Astros en route to yet another World Series appearance.  Go Saaaaaaaaawx (note the Boston accent)!  The unfortunate side is that I also made the mistake of telling Angela that there were pretty hefty patches of poison oak in the underbrushes surrounding our campsites.  I think Nate still wants to beat me up to this day for bringing it up, but I thought I was being a good doobie for helping keep their chocolate lab, Gus, from spreading the dreaded oils everywhere.  I happen to be highly allergic to all forms of that useless and disgusting weed, and I only brought it up in the event the Angela or Nate were similarly allergic.  Nathan, I am truly sorry.  I am sure your wife hasn’t slept in weeks since you left Calistoga, and I know your lives have been forever changed.  All kidding aside, we very much enjoyed the company of Angela and Nate and we are grateful they made the trip west to spend some time with us.  Nate and I got to talk tech on all things relating to vans, and Angela and MJ got to slug down white wine and talk about poison oak.  Thanks, guys…it was a great couple of days.  Incidentally, the van jamboree intensified on the first night of Angela and Nate’s arrival.  Another Sprinter showed up and parked in the site next to their Westie…a nice young couple, also from PC, by the names of Will and Ruby.  What a coincidence.  And as the pizzas were roasting on the Traeger, another Sprinter IDENTICAL to ours, pulled up and parked in the site next to us.  And guess what?  Also folks from Utah with a vacation home in PC!  How could this be?  Four successive sites with four couples from Park City in a little campground in southern Calistoga?  Now that’s a bunch of like-minded people zeroing in on a great place.  All things said, our time spent in Calistoga was one of our highlights of the journey thus far.  And it was especially pleasing after our series of one-night stands, considering we racked up 6 nights in the same spot!  If you are ever in the area and would like to camp as you enjoy wine country, Bothe-Napa Park is THE place to stay.  Okay, maybe California isn’t so bad after all.  Reluctantly, we left Calistoga on October 19, leaving the fancy grapes behind us and looking for moderately-priced hops in our future.  Cheers  and thanks again for reading our blog!