10/18/14 - Jelly Belly and Wine

We started our morning at a nearby service station, as per our usual after getting-ready routine. We make the usual check of the oil and add some if needed, check the coolant, trans fluid and the air in the tires andtheb fill up with fuel.  As we were putting a little extra air in the rear tires, a fellow stopped by to look at the car and talk about JDRF. He has Type 1 and was diagnosed at 17. He told us about some of his experiences growing up and gave us a donation.  He is a "car guy" and was glad that some one was linking cars and JDRF to. We thanked him for the donation, gave him one of our cards and headed out for wine country. 

On the way we stopped by the Jelly Belly Factory. I had forgotten that this was Saturday, but after seeing kids everywhere I came back to the reality that we would not be the only ones on the tour. We did our part to help the economy in the gift shop and moved on.

Jelly Belly Mobile.  Also sighted this trip: Mr Peanut and the Oscar Meyer Mobiles

Wine country on the weekend is pretty close to grid lock.  We headed to the back side of the valley to get away from the larger groups and the buses, limos and the wine train. A number of the smaller wineries were closed for private party's ( weddings), so we ventured into known brands. I had read that some of the wineries were charging a none refundable fee to taste there wines.  The highest fee we found was $50.00.  We should have figured this out when we drove in and the parking valets were all anxious to park the Thunderbird. We chose to self park on the other side of the lot.  After all, we didn't want to out class the Porsche's and BMW's with the Millennium Bird by parking on the valet side next to them.

After traveling north for a while, we veered back to the wild side of the valley.  Things  were much calmer up towards Calistoga. We stopped by V. Sattvi winery. This one has a big picnic area.  They were doing a BBQ and had a deli that sold cheese, salads and sandwich's. Joe found some great cheese and crackers that we snacked on while tasting wine.  We ended up purchasing a case between us. We saved 10% for buying in quantity, That sounds like someone I know.  She saves money by purchasing the complete outfit instead of just the blouse that she needed (I heard that, Jim.).

Bear in stone

We continued tasting and watching people until about 4:00 and then headed for Santa Rosa; our stop for the night. We totaled 130 miles today, This is the first travel day that we spent more on food, not wine, then we spent on fuel.

Dinner was on 4th street in downtown at an outside table where we continued people watching.

People watching