Tuesday, May 15 - Calistoga, CA

Today we are in Calistoga, CA at the Napa County Fairgrounds RV Park.  It is located walking distance to downtown and was only $19 a night with Passport America.  Gotta love the bargains! 

 There are only 4 guests in the campground, the RV next to the office is the camp host.

Our week at the 49er Village was exceptional!  The two-night stay turned into 7 nights, thank you, Chuck!  We wanted to see what a weekend was like so we decided to stick around until Monday the 14^th.  On Friday afternoon the RV’s started showing up.  It reminded me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds.”  Remember how when Tippy Hedren or Suzanne Pleshette would be sitting somewhere and a couple of birds would show up, then a few more, then a lot more, then she was surrounded by them?  That’s how it was for us on Friday afternoon.  By sundown we were surrounded and by noon on Sunday we were by ourselves once again.  Amazing! 

During our stay at the 49er we toured some of the wineries in the Shenandoah Valley.  None of the wineries charge for tasting!  So for the price of gas you could get mighty tipsy, thankfully we had a designated driver each time we went.  Ali made the supreme sacrifice and did the driving while her husband Gary, and Mike & I tasted lots of different wines.  We also purchased way more than we should have.  Se la vie.  It wont go to waste.  (maybe ‘waist’ but not waste)  We did visit the winery where the old vine zin came from and purchased more. 

We left the 49er Village on Monday, May 14 about 10:30 and arrived in Calistoga about 2 that afternoon.  We found the turnoff for the Fairgrounds and followed the signs but as we got to the Fairgrounds I didn’t see an RV Park.  There was a young man and a young woman standing outside the Fairgrounds office so I asked them where the RV Park was.  It was just through the stop sign and about a half block further.  The drive was easy and uneventful but we still took a short nap.  ;) 

After our nap we walked around the town and went in to the Visitor Center to get a walking map of downtown.  We also picked up information on a hike nearby and a geyser nearby.  It seems this whole area is a hotbed of geothermal activity, which explains why we saw so many signs advertising hot springs and mud baths.   

Today, we did the hike up the hill with Jenny.  She loved the hike and was tired enough when we got back to the RV that we didn’t mind leaving her by herself so we could go see the geyser.  As we walked through the gift shop and out the exit to see the geyser it started erupting.  The guy who took our money said it was erupting about every 5 minutes.  He wasn’t wrong; it went off regularly enough for us to get pictures of each of us standing in front of it and also a video. 

                                                Hiking on the Oat Hill Mine Trail

                                                          Mike in front of the geyser