Napa and Petaluma, CA

We left Winters once we were done getting the bus back into working order. Unfortunately, it looks like the reason why it blew that gasket is because it was just so cold outside and I didn't give it time to warm up. I guess you live and learn. I feel pretty stupid about that one but it is in the past so eff it.

The plan was to leave and find a camping site at Lake Berryessa. Anna had 2 scouted out already so we made our way out there. The road was pretty rural and I was a bit uneasy after the bad morning but the Bus did great. We stopped at both of the campsites and they both looked cold, depressing, and few campers. We decided Lake Berryessa was not going to make it on our trip and left for Napa because it wasn't too far off.

We took ca-121 over to Napa. That road truly tested the Bus. It had twists and turns big uphills and downhills. We made it past without problems but I do know that I don't expect the Bus to go more than 40 mph over any decent sized hill :P. Going along the roads we just saw vineyard after vineyard and it was quite beautiful with the fall colors on them. Lots of rolling hills in the Napa Valley with lots of Agriculture made for a very picturesque drive. We found a camping site call Skyline Wilderness park and paid our $30 bucks so that we could have electrical hooks up and a place for the night.

A California native growth garden at Skyline

We looked around just for a small bit and then started to make dinner. With the electrical going and they also had wifi we were just chillin' in the Bus with our computers surfing the net, checking Facebook etc. etc. I jumped on Hulu and watched some shows. I thought it was funny that we decide to make this crazy trip and "live without" for awhile and here we are vegging in front of the computer watching our favorite shows. Anna wasn't happy that the new episode of Gossip Girl wasn't up yet though.

Before going to bed I started to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I had started it earlier this year but didn't get very far and just decided to start over. I probably read the first 20 pages of Economy. The observations he made and the way he sees life is quite enlightening. He wrote this book back in 1854 yet the things he observed about the people that surrounded him seem like people alive today. We get so wrapped up in things we think we need and work so hard at jobs we don't like to try and get these luxuries. Then it turns out you never reach the point where you are happy and have all the luxuries you desire and looking back you spent you life in unhappy situation after unhappy situation. You become a slave to the things you desire not realizing that your desires will not provide what you hope. I enjoyed the read.

Fell asleep then woke up and we had some breakfast and then went for a hike. There was a main trail there that led to Lake Marie. It was mostly uphill and a decently challenging hike. According to the map we were almost to the lake before we decided to turn back because we were tired and had been hiking for a good solid hour.

A Cave on our hike

We spotted Paul Bunyan on the hike

Weird cutaway in the rocks on our hike

After the hike we left the camping site and went to visit Anna's Great Uncle Ray. He lives in Napa and we drove across town to see him and visit. I had never met him and Anna hadn't seen him in a long time. We were welcomed with open arms. Ray went out and got us pizza for lunch and then we just talked about our plans and talked about the past. Ray had just recently lost his wife (she was 81 I believe and he 82). So we talked about her for awhile talked about him growing up and why he moved everywhere he decided to move. He came from Indiana to Hayward, CA then to Napa, CA. After about and hour or two visiting we were off to Petaluma not too far probably like 40 miles from Napa.

We filled up on gas for the first time on the trip in Petaluma and found our campsite. It was a "Boondocking" site which basically means it isn't a formal campground. It was in a parking lot of a 24hour mom and pop restaurant. We busted out the bikes and rode them to the historic district and walked around. After a good while we went by the theaters and decided to watch Due Date. It was funny and by the time it was done it was dark. We rode our bikes back to the Bus and I realized that we definitely need some headlights for our bikes. After that we just made ourselves comfortable in the Bus for the rest of the night.

 

Pics from walking around Petaluma the church is St. Vincent de Paul

Winters, CA our first stop on our trip

Had a hectic morning unexpectedly. Went to move the bus to a spot that we could park at all day and heard a gurgling sound. Looked behind me and saw a trail of oil! Needless to say I was freaking out. I thought that it was very realistic that our trip was already over. Pulled over and took a look at what was causing the leak. It was the external oil filter. For whatever reason the gasket got tweaked and it let oil spill out. We made a pretty bad mess on the asphalt with probably 3 quarts of oil on the ground. We ran to the auto parts store and picked up a new filter and some supplies to clean up. I got the new filter on and filled the engine up with oil to the proper level. Pretty quickly it started leaking again! Turns out the filter we got, while on the auto parts store says it matches but is not the same brand, just didn't fit correctly. I fixed the gasket on the original filter and put that on and now it seems to be sealed up proper.

I am definitely very worried that this problem may happen again. I guess we are going through the beginning growing pains of this trip but this is an issue that we shouldn't be having. I have driven this bus all around town and to and from San Francisco twice without a problem. Why does this happen now? AAhhhhh! I just pray that God keeps this bus intact and in good working order.

Now on with my time in Winters last night.

We probably arrived in Winters at 2pm. Found a place to park and got on our bikes to ride around downtown Winters. Turns out downtown isn't that big and bikes weren't all that necessary. We stopped into a hardware store to pick up some odds and ends that we didn't get back in Sacramento and continued down the road. We went into their visitors center and asked them what the must sees were in town. The lady there gave us a few brochures and let us know of some landmarks close by to check out.

This is the Old Train bridge now a pedestrian walkway.

Downtown Winters what you see is basically it

We asked her about a sign we saw that said "Chamber of Commerce Mixer Everyone Welcome" She said we were definitely invited and all it was was $5 donation. We had some good finger foods with some wine. We met the owner of Buckhorn grill which is apparently important because Winters is the original Buckhorn. He didn't like the idea of getting a picture with us but it was fun talking to him. After speaking with him we began talking to a couple who owned a bar down the way across the Putah Creek. They gave us a card for 2 free beers and just said they were happy to meet us. The place is call Dee Dee's Bar and Grill and we went there had our brew and charged our cellphones. Pretty fun night and it was cool meeting the local people around town.

Here we are at the Mixer

My Introduction

Hey guys,

Well I am going to assume that you already read the main page intro and I will take it from there talking more about myself and my personal feelings about this trip leading up to and everything I am going through.

Let me first tell you more about our travel plans and our big scheme. When I first cooked this idea up it was in probably October of 2009. I knew we were making good money and looking at our expenses and everything; thought that it was reasonable to save up enough money where we could travel the country frugally for a year and also have enough money to get back on our feet by May 2010. Well we weren't very disciplined in saving money. We still ate at expensive restaurants a ton and basically bought what we felt like for the most part for the next 7 months. We were still able to save money but it just wasn't enough to leave when we thought we would. I kept on keeping on and we eventually got there in October. I worked hard on the Bus from about August onward. I am a bit frustrated with myself because after doing so much work on my Bus I realize that I could have done a ton of work on it while I waited for my brand new engine to be built. That's in the past and I am just going to have to take what I could get done in the past short months. I know the Bus isn't perfect but I am confident that it is reliable and I pray that it will make everywhere we wish it to go.

Leading up to this trip I went through many ups and downs. I was of course very happy and excited when I bought my Bus. I got it off of thesamba.com where all VW fanatics go to get their parts. I drove down to Alameda purchased the Bus for 1300 dollars and had it towed to Sacramento. After getting to my parents house, Anna and I lived in an apartment, I quickly pulled the engine and sent it off to get rebuilt.

As I waited for the work to get done I had to let certain important people in my life know my plans. I was volunteering for a Christian organization called Younglife for the past year and a half. I let my Area director, Kevin, know that at the end of the spring semester 2010 I planned on ending my role as a leader there at Downtown Sacramento/McClatchy High School Younglife. He was sad that I wouldn't continue on but was very excited about our potential trip. I was attending church at Restoration Life and helping with the High School group, Zero Gravity, too and let them know I would be stepping down at the end of December 2009. Everyone was sad but excited.

Letting my parents know was scary. I knew they wouldn't be happy for us and would be giving us every question in the book to try and deter us from our adventure. To this day I still think my Mother is very against our trip and very worried about us. That's OK though, this just lets me know that she truly cares for and loves both of us :). I had worked everything out in my brain enough where I was very convicted that I could pull this trip off and if it fails we had a back up plan.

When we weren't able to make the May leave date like we planned it was very disappointing. Anna and I felt like we were questioning whether we really wanted to go on this trip or not. We were questioning each other and I know I felt like Anna was doubting my ability to pull this off. We still said we planned on this trip and that we just needed to become more disciplined and I needed to work harder on weekends on the Bus. I got the completed engine in early June. I got it a day before I left for Younglife camp up in Woodleaf. I had an amazing time up at that camp beat up on kids (in a playful sense) and connected with them. I truly had an amazing experience there that I hadn't felt like in awhile. One of the best things about the week was Anna was camp Nurse! I got to see her there the entire week unlike the past two previous years where I just had to leave her at home. We hope to volunteer at other camps around the country as we travel.

After the Younglife camp I just couldn't get back in gear to working on my Bus. I went a month without touching the brand new engine that sat in my parents' garage. I was depressed and felt like as I waited longer to get going on the bus the harder it was to start. I finally sucked it up and got going. Now the wheels were in motion and we got everything situated...


... Sorry for how long this is I know in the future the blogs won't be this long and hopefully mostly pictures and video :)


Well I quit my job at the end of August to concentrate fully on the bus and Anna kept on working till we were just about to leave.

Today was our first day of travels and it has already had some really crazy twists and turns that we definitely didn't expect. I will blog about them in the morning hopefully. Right now I am sure you are done reading and I am done writing.


Peace