Day 20: Napa Valley

 July 15, 2021

Vanlog, stealth camping the streets of Oakland, CA

I woke at 5:30 to catch the sunrise over Lake Tahoe and oh yeah it was worth it!

I didn’t have much planned for today. I knew I had to be in Oakland about dinner time but that was a 3-4 hour drive so I had the better part of a day yet. I drove west on RT 50 through Placerville, a gold mining town known as Hangtown, where we had stayed on a previous trip.

Then I drove to the Napa Valley with no plan. They say that a failure to plan is a plan for failure, but eventually I got my bearings and found the famed Silverado trail through the heart of the Valley. The valley is not as wide as I expected—you can easily see both ranges on either side, but it is much longer than I had imagined. For mikes on end, you pass vineyard after vineyard. I stopped at Sutter Home, Beringer, and Castillo di Amorosa. In Napa these days, you have to pay to play. Gone are the free tastings and winery tours. If you want to see a place you have to pay for a tasting or buy some bottles. So I was faced with a choice of a $65 tasting, a three bottle purchase minimum, or no sightseeing on an actual winery. I chose the three bottles because at least then I’d have some equity. $76 got me three wines and an hour photographing the outside of the castillo. 

Then I fought (literally) the Bay Area traffic for a two-hour drive to Oakland. Here, I met up with someone who I only knew from Instagram, my friend Gina. It’s funny how you can get to know someone over the Internet. We had never met in real life but she was kind enough to allow me to stay in her driveway and to trust sharing takeout with me. She was exactly the way I imagined—kind, warm, and deeply spiritual. Despite being sick she showed enormous hospitality. This is one thing I find interesting about myself while on the road. Usually an introvert, I tend to want to talk more with people when traveling than I would at home. Maybe I just miss my family and need people to talk to, but in every instance I have found that people respond to kindness with kindness. Total strangers at a shared boondocking site, people met on the trail, Instagram friends…we are all just people after all is said and done. Each story is unique, each individual is different, and we are all here just sharing this beautiful planet together.