Read our travels from San Francisco to Plymouth California
Tuesday morning – time to leave San Francisco.
I caught the bus and walked to the downtown Alamo car rentals office (luckily not too far away). Sorted out the paperwork, resisted their offer to upgrade our vehicle – they thought I’d “be more comfortable” in a larger vehicle.
I tried to program the GPS with our apartment’s address where Jenny and our luggage were, but was unsuccessful – unless I wanted to go to Chicago (if I left now, I’d be there in eleven hours!).
So I found my own way back to the apartment – a little stressful but I only broke a handful of traffic rules while I was doing it.
Made it back to the house finally.
Jenny and I said goodbye to our three amigos, who by this stage had a serious stoop.
The three amigos
Got the GPS working and we headed to Plymouth where Jenny’s sister lives. The journey was a little less than 4 hours, largely east through Sacramento.
One interim stop was all that was necessary. It was here I read in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival drew a record crowd this year – around 900,000 for the three days, compared with 250,000 last year (official crowd numbers will be released later this week). Further, an estimated additional 1 million fans watched the live webcasts on the HSB website.
On the way in the car we listened to two new CDs – Peter Rowan’s Old School (beautifully simple, traditional and heartfelt) and Calexico’s Aerocalexico (replete with instrumentals and interesting alternate versions). Both fine company.
By 2pm we had arrived in Plymouth, Amador County – wine country.
In particular, our destination was Bronwyn and David’s pretty, quiet and peaceful vineyard.
After unpacking, we had a good walk to a neighbour’s house to check on some of their wine – mainly stirring,
and luckily some tasting
followed by picking some home-grown produce back at their house
and a little more wine pre-dinner
before a delicious home-cooked pasta dinner and a much-needed early night.
Read our travels from San Francisco to Plymouth California
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