Thelma and Louise Report Back
Sep 27th, 2014, 01:45 PM
#1
Original Poster
Thelma and Louise Report Back
I posted a trip itinerary and got some helpful comments so am doing a report back.
My college friend and I met in San Francisco, where we had been separately visiting friends and family. Although the plan was to meet at 10am, Thelma's driver decided to put on a full face of makeup and they weren't ready til after lunch. We also decided to stop at Lundardi's to stock up on provisions before leaving. If you are flying in to San Francisco airport, the Burlingame location is not very far away. http://www.lunardis.com/
We had two nights near Healdsburg (at a private house). The main activities were winetasting and a quick visit to "downtown" Healdsburg. Most of the places we stopped participated in the Visa Signature free tasting program. If you are not familiar with this, details are here: http://www.sonomawine.com/visa-signa...s-winery-guide
Wineries visited (in tasting order):
Lynmar Estates. memorable for their vegetable garden as much as their fairly pricy wines. Our pourer basically ignored us, until we started name-dropping.
Mauritson. Five pours, including a Rockpile Syrah and a Dry Creek Zin. We bought their 2012 Sauvignon Blanc . 10%
Rued. Small room, very drinkable wines and moderate prices. Bought their 2012 Estate Dry Creek Pinot Grigio (slightly spritzy), the 2010 Pinot Noir, and the 2011 Dry Creek Zinfandel. I think their tasting fee was $5 for anything you wanted.
Papapietro. 4 Pinot Noirs & 1 Zin, the "terroir" tasting.
Peterson. $10 to taste whatever you want, fee comes off any purchase. Lots of red blends & Zins, but also opportunity to taste Petite Sirah, Barbera, Sangiovese. Don't miss the $14 Shameless Red (deducting your $10 fee, it's a bargain). Liked it almost as much as their $60 blend AgRaRia.
Sbragia. 5 Pours. Heavily oaked. The pourer threw in an older Cab to compare with the 2011 that was being poured.
Zichichi. $10 for barrel room tasting of 2013 vintages of two old-vine zins (40 and 85-year old) and one cab from the top of Chalk Hill. If the "barrel tasting today" sign is up, don't miss this one. Wines are sold by 'futures' only.
We stopped into Healdsburg for a walk, some more provisions, and ice cream. We cooked at "home" since King Salmon is still in season. Some heirloom tomatoes from Lynmar snuck their way into my purse.
Our third morning, we left on time at 10 am and drove to Camp Curry, Yosemite. Of course the fire was a concern, but we checked the webcams and it seemed to be clear in the afternoons and hazy in the mornings. Since we were leaving from Sonoma County, the route was across the California Delta. We stopped for a break at the Delta
Farmers Market just across the River near Rio Vista.
We also made a wrong turn (Thelma is not navigating when we go on the Amazing Race, hah!) But still arrived in time to see the afternoon light on El Capitan and Half Dome. I think we just had sandwiches for dinner since the Camp Curry menu didn't look great that night. Camp Curry was fine, except that their wi-fi seems to be permanently broken. Bedtime is 10 pm when 'quiet time' is supposed to start, although both nights I had to yell out the tent that it was time to stop talking. Camp Curry has a coffee station that serves Peet's coffee, and your cup and receipt is good for all-day refills.
We did go on the free camera walk. The first 10 minutes were promising, but the rest was a major disappointment. We left 10 minutes early. The 'instructor' spent at least a third of the time stationary, flipping thru pages of an Ansel Adams photo book that had no relation to anything we were viewing. After lunch we drove up to Glacier Point where we could view the backcountry fires. The view from Washburn Point of Half Dome is a ' "WOW' moment as you round the bend and it pops into view. We started to do the Sentinel Dome hike, but Thelma was still learning to use hiking poles and wasn't confident on her feet, so we turned around after half an hour or so. Dinner was at Camp Curry, trout with capers and zucchini medley, surprisingly good!
The next morning we had breakfast at the Ahwahnee. Lovely room but the food quality was hit and miss. As I was messing with my camera before leaving that morning, it broke! Hence there was no reason to stop at Mono Lake as previously planned, for a sunset photo session. Instead we stopped along the Tioga Pass Road (at Tenaya Lake) and got to Bishop in time for dinner with our friends. On finally being able to check the internet, we discovered the news about the I-15 washout between Las Vegas and Mesquite. Fortunately the road had just reopened an hour before.
The next morning we hit Schats and the Saturday Farmer's Market, as well as the grocery store. We always stop at the Lone Pine Visitor center (really a good one). We were quite late leaving due to the farmer's market etc, and when we reached Death Valley it was a mere 114 degrees at the Visitor Center (They have a big digital display in front for photos). We drove the Artist's Pallette Loop. Since it was late, we exited at Death Valley Junction and went via Pahrump, the armpit of Nevada! It does have a Walmart, we I bought a cheapie point and shoot. We spent the night in Mesquite at a comfortable room at the Eureka Casino hotel, and had dinner at their diner restaurant Mason Street Grill (nothing special other than friendly service). Since it was Saturday, there wasn't much delay from the freeway washout.
For some reason we took forever to get going, and losing an hour crossing into Utah. I was concerned about possible delays through the Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel so we decided not to stop in Springdale. Our target was the 2:30 pm tour at Best Friends (Angel Canyon) and we got there at 1:30 pm. At 2pm we were able to drop off our luggage at our cottage before our tour, and returned to the visitor center just in time to see one of their vans burst into flames. For dinner, we had deli and wine on our little patio overlooking the horse corrals. Lovely, relaxing. No Rocking V Cafe this time. At 8 pm we settled in to watch a bit of TV, & guess what was playing on the channel that came up first? Yes, Thelma and Louise.
The next day we did a half morning volunteer stint (Thelma dog=walking and myself surrounding by supplicants asking to be petted at one of the
Cat World buildings... 4 hours of petting cats!) For lunch, we had their $5 veggie buffet (mostly a salad bar) and were treated to a golden eagle flyby as we sat on the patio overlooking Angel Canyon. I can understand why people come back year after year to volunteer. We met people from all over the country, too.
We more or less left on time (for a change) and arrived at Bryce Lodge in time to check in and then hike Queens Gardens/Navajo Loop, & watch sunset. Dinner in the room. The next morning we stumbled to the rim in the dark (in our PJs), and saw sunrise from Sunset Point. It was warmer than we had expected thanks to the tropical air that was still lingering in the area.
As we left Bryce in the morning, the prairie dogs were visible in the meadow near the park entrance. Cool! I had never seen them previously. We passed through Kanab, but knew that the cheaper gas was over the state line in Fredonia at Judd's "Lotto Guns Ammo Beer"... Thelma and Louise briefly feared they were in Texas. We did stop at Jacob's Lake Inn to buy cookies at their bakery for the next morning's breakfast.
Driving into the North Rim, the herd of buffalo (or crossbred buffalo/cattle?) were out on the meadow, and I also spotted a coyote in a separate meadow. It's a very lovely drive with just a few aspen starting to turn. We were able to go out to Cape Royal but left Inspiration Point for the following morning. Our North Rim room was a tiny Frontier Cabin which had a coffee maker but few other amenities other than ensuite. We did have a 6:15 pm Lodge dinner time and it was terrible. Furthermore the sunset viewing scene is a cluster-you know what. Sorry we went that way. That evening we were able to watch the thunderstorms that were hitting Williams from the lodge sitting room.
The next morning's sunrise was early, but a more reasonable scene on the patio and we enjoyed coffee made in the room (but not their coffee, which was stale) cookies from Jacob's Lake, and fruit from Kanab.
After our 11 am checkout, we stopped again at Jacob's Lake Inn, then down via the Vermillion Cliffs to Cliff Dwellers Lodge. It was warm (in the 90's) but we visited Lee's Ferry, Paria Riffle beach, and the Navajo Bridge (where there was a juvenile condor roosting under the bridge). Then we returned to Cliff Dwellers to check out the balancing rocks and watch sunset. The food at Cliff Dwellers is great, we shared a rib-eye for dinner, and the following mornings trout and hash breakfasts were qually fine.
We dawdled over breakfast and then headed for the final night's lodging on the South Rim at Maswik. There was roadway construction here, also. We stopped at Cameron to gawk at the gallery and buy a few souvenirs. We also had a longish stop at Desert View, looking at the paintings inside and trying to spot some migrating hawks (maybe a peregrine but not sure). I dropped my friend at El Tovar to watch sunset there, while I hunted for parking. Dinner was late, we managed to snag two of the last pizza slices at Maswik. The other food looked awful (and I heard that it was).
Up for sunrise 6:14 am, we drove to the geology museum and walked along the rim trail. Our plans to catch the shuttle back to the museum were delayed when a Sysco truck driver rear-ended the bus just before the railroad tracks. The next bus (which was already 10 minutes late), decided to pass up all the delayed passengers who had been told to get off and walk back to Bright Angel Lodge. Great customer service, Paul Revere. So it was nearly 12:30 pm by the time we left GC. The Maswik people were at least nice enough to assure us that a late checkout was fine.
We didn't stop until we reached Seligman, AZ on Route 66 for Delgadillo's Sno Cap. I had a shake and my friend had to have a snow cone. We also stopped in Kingman at Mickie D's for jalapeno burgers. Just before the freeway exit to Kingman, there was a herd of pronghorn antelope, another animal I've never seen in the wild! After stopping for Popeye's fried chicken in Barstow, I got a second wind and we made it all the way back to Long Beach by about 10:30 pm.
In the end, T&L lived to tell the tale, despite forest and car fires, dodging floods, 114 degree weather in DV, never-ending road repairs, a broken camera, rear-ended buses, and one horrible meal balanced out by several good ones. Although we never did meet Brad Pitt
My college friend and I met in San Francisco, where we had been separately visiting friends and family. Although the plan was to meet at 10am, Thelma's driver decided to put on a full face of makeup and they weren't ready til after lunch. We also decided to stop at Lundardi's to stock up on provisions before leaving. If you are flying in to San Francisco airport, the Burlingame location is not very far away. http://www.lunardis.com/
We had two nights near Healdsburg (at a private house). The main activities were winetasting and a quick visit to "downtown" Healdsburg. Most of the places we stopped participated in the Visa Signature free tasting program. If you are not familiar with this, details are here: http://www.sonomawine.com/visa-signa...s-winery-guide
Wineries visited (in tasting order):
Lynmar Estates. memorable for their vegetable garden as much as their fairly pricy wines. Our pourer basically ignored us, until we started name-dropping.
Mauritson. Five pours, including a Rockpile Syrah and a Dry Creek Zin. We bought their 2012 Sauvignon Blanc . 10%
Rued. Small room, very drinkable wines and moderate prices. Bought their 2012 Estate Dry Creek Pinot Grigio (slightly spritzy), the 2010 Pinot Noir, and the 2011 Dry Creek Zinfandel. I think their tasting fee was $5 for anything you wanted.
Papapietro. 4 Pinot Noirs & 1 Zin, the "terroir" tasting.
Peterson. $10 to taste whatever you want, fee comes off any purchase. Lots of red blends & Zins, but also opportunity to taste Petite Sirah, Barbera, Sangiovese. Don't miss the $14 Shameless Red (deducting your $10 fee, it's a bargain). Liked it almost as much as their $60 blend AgRaRia.
Sbragia. 5 Pours. Heavily oaked. The pourer threw in an older Cab to compare with the 2011 that was being poured.
Zichichi. $10 for barrel room tasting of 2013 vintages of two old-vine zins (40 and 85-year old) and one cab from the top of Chalk Hill. If the "barrel tasting today" sign is up, don't miss this one. Wines are sold by 'futures' only.
We stopped into Healdsburg for a walk, some more provisions, and ice cream. We cooked at "home" since King Salmon is still in season. Some heirloom tomatoes from Lynmar snuck their way into my purse.
Our third morning, we left on time at 10 am and drove to Camp Curry, Yosemite. Of course the fire was a concern, but we checked the webcams and it seemed to be clear in the afternoons and hazy in the mornings. Since we were leaving from Sonoma County, the route was across the California Delta. We stopped for a break at the Delta
Farmers Market just across the River near Rio Vista.
We also made a wrong turn (Thelma is not navigating when we go on the Amazing Race, hah!) But still arrived in time to see the afternoon light on El Capitan and Half Dome. I think we just had sandwiches for dinner since the Camp Curry menu didn't look great that night. Camp Curry was fine, except that their wi-fi seems to be permanently broken. Bedtime is 10 pm when 'quiet time' is supposed to start, although both nights I had to yell out the tent that it was time to stop talking. Camp Curry has a coffee station that serves Peet's coffee, and your cup and receipt is good for all-day refills.
We did go on the free camera walk. The first 10 minutes were promising, but the rest was a major disappointment. We left 10 minutes early. The 'instructor' spent at least a third of the time stationary, flipping thru pages of an Ansel Adams photo book that had no relation to anything we were viewing. After lunch we drove up to Glacier Point where we could view the backcountry fires. The view from Washburn Point of Half Dome is a ' "WOW' moment as you round the bend and it pops into view. We started to do the Sentinel Dome hike, but Thelma was still learning to use hiking poles and wasn't confident on her feet, so we turned around after half an hour or so. Dinner was at Camp Curry, trout with capers and zucchini medley, surprisingly good!
The next morning we had breakfast at the Ahwahnee. Lovely room but the food quality was hit and miss. As I was messing with my camera before leaving that morning, it broke! Hence there was no reason to stop at Mono Lake as previously planned, for a sunset photo session. Instead we stopped along the Tioga Pass Road (at Tenaya Lake) and got to Bishop in time for dinner with our friends. On finally being able to check the internet, we discovered the news about the I-15 washout between Las Vegas and Mesquite. Fortunately the road had just reopened an hour before.
The next morning we hit Schats and the Saturday Farmer's Market, as well as the grocery store. We always stop at the Lone Pine Visitor center (really a good one). We were quite late leaving due to the farmer's market etc, and when we reached Death Valley it was a mere 114 degrees at the Visitor Center (They have a big digital display in front for photos). We drove the Artist's Pallette Loop. Since it was late, we exited at Death Valley Junction and went via Pahrump, the armpit of Nevada! It does have a Walmart, we I bought a cheapie point and shoot. We spent the night in Mesquite at a comfortable room at the Eureka Casino hotel, and had dinner at their diner restaurant Mason Street Grill (nothing special other than friendly service). Since it was Saturday, there wasn't much delay from the freeway washout.
For some reason we took forever to get going, and losing an hour crossing into Utah. I was concerned about possible delays through the Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel so we decided not to stop in Springdale. Our target was the 2:30 pm tour at Best Friends (Angel Canyon) and we got there at 1:30 pm. At 2pm we were able to drop off our luggage at our cottage before our tour, and returned to the visitor center just in time to see one of their vans burst into flames. For dinner, we had deli and wine on our little patio overlooking the horse corrals. Lovely, relaxing. No Rocking V Cafe this time. At 8 pm we settled in to watch a bit of TV, & guess what was playing on the channel that came up first? Yes, Thelma and Louise.
The next day we did a half morning volunteer stint (Thelma dog=walking and myself surrounding by supplicants asking to be petted at one of the
Cat World buildings... 4 hours of petting cats!) For lunch, we had their $5 veggie buffet (mostly a salad bar) and were treated to a golden eagle flyby as we sat on the patio overlooking Angel Canyon. I can understand why people come back year after year to volunteer. We met people from all over the country, too.
We more or less left on time (for a change) and arrived at Bryce Lodge in time to check in and then hike Queens Gardens/Navajo Loop, & watch sunset. Dinner in the room. The next morning we stumbled to the rim in the dark (in our PJs), and saw sunrise from Sunset Point. It was warmer than we had expected thanks to the tropical air that was still lingering in the area.
As we left Bryce in the morning, the prairie dogs were visible in the meadow near the park entrance. Cool! I had never seen them previously. We passed through Kanab, but knew that the cheaper gas was over the state line in Fredonia at Judd's "Lotto Guns Ammo Beer"... Thelma and Louise briefly feared they were in Texas. We did stop at Jacob's Lake Inn to buy cookies at their bakery for the next morning's breakfast.
Driving into the North Rim, the herd of buffalo (or crossbred buffalo/cattle?) were out on the meadow, and I also spotted a coyote in a separate meadow. It's a very lovely drive with just a few aspen starting to turn. We were able to go out to Cape Royal but left Inspiration Point for the following morning. Our North Rim room was a tiny Frontier Cabin which had a coffee maker but few other amenities other than ensuite. We did have a 6:15 pm Lodge dinner time and it was terrible. Furthermore the sunset viewing scene is a cluster-you know what. Sorry we went that way. That evening we were able to watch the thunderstorms that were hitting Williams from the lodge sitting room.
The next morning's sunrise was early, but a more reasonable scene on the patio and we enjoyed coffee made in the room (but not their coffee, which was stale) cookies from Jacob's Lake, and fruit from Kanab.
After our 11 am checkout, we stopped again at Jacob's Lake Inn, then down via the Vermillion Cliffs to Cliff Dwellers Lodge. It was warm (in the 90's) but we visited Lee's Ferry, Paria Riffle beach, and the Navajo Bridge (where there was a juvenile condor roosting under the bridge). Then we returned to Cliff Dwellers to check out the balancing rocks and watch sunset. The food at Cliff Dwellers is great, we shared a rib-eye for dinner, and the following mornings trout and hash breakfasts were qually fine.
We dawdled over breakfast and then headed for the final night's lodging on the South Rim at Maswik. There was roadway construction here, also. We stopped at Cameron to gawk at the gallery and buy a few souvenirs. We also had a longish stop at Desert View, looking at the paintings inside and trying to spot some migrating hawks (maybe a peregrine but not sure). I dropped my friend at El Tovar to watch sunset there, while I hunted for parking. Dinner was late, we managed to snag two of the last pizza slices at Maswik. The other food looked awful (and I heard that it was).
Up for sunrise 6:14 am, we drove to the geology museum and walked along the rim trail. Our plans to catch the shuttle back to the museum were delayed when a Sysco truck driver rear-ended the bus just before the railroad tracks. The next bus (which was already 10 minutes late), decided to pass up all the delayed passengers who had been told to get off and walk back to Bright Angel Lodge. Great customer service, Paul Revere. So it was nearly 12:30 pm by the time we left GC. The Maswik people were at least nice enough to assure us that a late checkout was fine.
We didn't stop until we reached Seligman, AZ on Route 66 for Delgadillo's Sno Cap. I had a shake and my friend had to have a snow cone. We also stopped in Kingman at Mickie D's for jalapeno burgers. Just before the freeway exit to Kingman, there was a herd of pronghorn antelope, another animal I've never seen in the wild! After stopping for Popeye's fried chicken in Barstow, I got a second wind and we made it all the way back to Long Beach by about 10:30 pm.
In the end, T&L lived to tell the tale, despite forest and car fires, dodging floods, 114 degree weather in DV, never-ending road repairs, a broken camera, rear-ended buses, and one horrible meal balanced out by several good ones. Although we never did meet Brad Pitt
Sep 27th, 2014, 02:09 PM
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 9,754
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for the interesting trip report mlgb! It's nice to hear a different type of trip. Glad most things went well although a Best Friends van bursting into flames is rather alarming! Did it burn up or was there fire equipment to put it out? Vehicle fires go so quickly.
I've done a tour at Best Friends, but have not volunteered yet. Did you have to arrange that very far ahead to stay at the sanctuary?
You have also managed to remind me why I do car trips with a cooler stocked with "in-room dining" foods! It's just too annoying to pay high park prices for bad food.
Too bad about Brad....
I've done a tour at Best Friends, but have not volunteered yet. Did you have to arrange that very far ahead to stay at the sanctuary?
You have also managed to remind me why I do car trips with a cooler stocked with "in-room dining" foods! It's just too annoying to pay high park prices for bad food.
Too bad about Brad....
Sep 27th, 2014, 03:03 PM
#3
Original Poster
Hi Dayle. The van had just been driven back from a tour, and apparently the dashboard lights were all flashing so guess it was electrical. It was parked under a cottonwood tree, which started to catch. Finally we suggested that they get their longest hose and try to put some water at least on the tree until the fire department arrived. Fortunately their hose reached and they knew that the gas tank was in the back of the truck and the flames were in the front. The fire department took forever to show up (it was Sunday). Good thing they had a long hose.
I checked their online reservation system and was surprised to see there was a cottage available for a night that worked for us. If you join as a donor ($25) the rates are reduced. You have to pay 100% nonrefundable upfront at reservation time! They also have smaller cabins and RV sites.
Of course you can also stay in town, you don't have to stay onsite to volunteer. If you want to have a "sleepover", quite a few in-town lodgings allow for it.
BF has a registration/sign up system online, for volunteer sign-ups. After you register you can see what sessions are available for volunteer signups. Some of them book out early, like horses and pigs. Sometimes even dogs, which takes 35 volunteers per session. Cats usually isn't full.
I agree on the park food. We did have coolers but were hoping for some splurge meals. Never again!
I checked their online reservation system and was surprised to see there was a cottage available for a night that worked for us. If you join as a donor ($25) the rates are reduced. You have to pay 100% nonrefundable upfront at reservation time! They also have smaller cabins and RV sites.
Of course you can also stay in town, you don't have to stay onsite to volunteer. If you want to have a "sleepover", quite a few in-town lodgings allow for it.
BF has a registration/sign up system online, for volunteer sign-ups. After you register you can see what sessions are available for volunteer signups. Some of them book out early, like horses and pigs. Sometimes even dogs, which takes 35 volunteers per session. Cats usually isn't full.
I agree on the park food. We did have coolers but were hoping for some splurge meals. Never again!
Sep 27th, 2014, 03:05 PM
#4
Original Poster
Here is the link to reservations.
https://reservations.bestfriends.org/
Interestingly many of the moderately priced Kanab hotels were also full. I guess September is peak travel time there.
https://reservations.bestfriends.org/
Interestingly many of the moderately priced Kanab hotels were also full. I guess September is peak travel time there.
