Wednesday Outing; August 13, 2008.

Wednesday Outing - August 13, 2008.
We moved out from the ramp at 10:45. Tony drove over to Laurel Creek to pick up a motorized - scooter passenger. Ten minutes to load her aboard, and then, we are off again at 10:55. There are nine of us aboard - including Kelli - plus Tony, of course.
As we move over the I-80 overpass, I see moderate traffic crawling East and West along I-80. We head West on Hill born - through the Castle Rock area. I notice the fairly new Fairfield-Suisun School District building as we head down the hill, and right on to Waterman Boulevard. We are heading Southbound, and past Mary’s and Greg’s house (our daughter and son-in-law). There is a large fire-darkened area to the right -
Not too far from Rancho Solano. Very poor air quality - probably due to our frequent air inversions.
Tony turns right onto Manka’s Corner Road, and we head down Brown Valley Road past the Wooden Valley winery. Passing some large homes and wineries. Interesting seeing the large bunches of grapes hanging from the vines. It won’t be too long now before they will be picking them. I hope that they don’t have too much trouble finding labor. There is water in the creek running alongside our route.
I was surprised how pretty the drive at the base of Twin Sisters mountain is. I have lived in the area, (Vallejo) since 1962, and yet, have been in this area only once or twice before. Tony cautiously passes a lone bike rider - pedaling slow in our same direction. I particularly noticed him because he had large USA letters printed on the back of his tee shirt. My first thought was - I hope that he didn’t miss the Great Wall (Olympics), and was “lost”.
This is a vast area. I never thought there was so much good land left in California, There are expensive horse stables along the way. There are also grape vines planted everywhere - both young and old. I couldn’t identify the varieties. A low-cement wall running alongside. The farmers must have run out of rocks!
This area is very dry! No water in the creek down below us. Fortunately, there’s not much traffic through here. We pass through the Highways 181 and 128 intersection. I see a unique monumental-rock road toward a “Rock Slide Area.
Tony is not only a safe and good driver, he is also courteous and observes “the rules of the road”. He pulls over to the right side of the road and lets a few cars pass us, as they have slowly bunched up behind our slower-moving mini -bus.
We are now traveling down Highway 128, along Monticello Road toward the northern Napa area. I can see Lake Berryessa off to our left even though the water level is quite low from a couple years of below average storage of water. Monticello Dam is a beautiful engineering marvel - a tribute to our forefathers’ planning and ingenuity. It is hard to realize that such a large area - now submerged - used to be dry land!
Ahead are “deer and rock slide” signs, ending with a 45 mph speed limit sign. I notice that Kelli is munching on crackers in her co=pilot’s seat. I can understand and sympathize - it is not only the magic- lunch hour, but her stomach must be queasy, as is mine.
The vineyards on the surrounding hills are different shades of green. The vines must be of different ages. We are cruising the Putah Creek/ area. I have never seen this scenery before - certainly pleasing to the eye. A strange sight - twin palm trees over on the hill - keeping each other company with no other trees around. It makes me wonder who planted them? And how long ago and WHY?
We are passing through a hoi-poloi area - many horse stables in large boarding facilities. It is now 12:30, and we are down on a flat road once again. Tony turns on to Vaca Valley Road, and we head for Vacaville and lunch at Fenton’s Ice Cream Parlor. We approach Vacaville on Monte Vista as we parallel I-80.
After lunch, we load up and complete our round-trip journey. We leave Vacaville at 3:15. A lot more traffic on the freeway now than there was four hours ago. So, Tony took the frontage road along I-80. A good decision!
We pulled up at Quail Creek at 3:30, after having had another nice Wednesday sightseeing. Tony said that we had covered about 50 miles. RCL-9/29/08.