California5-0

Leaving Colby KS. It was our last hotel stay together. Moving slow this am but can't wait to see family at home. We stopped in Hays for gas and got Starbucks coffee to keep me going. I drove to Salina. 2pm now and it's Shari's turn to drive now. Just 2 hours to Beckys house. Then an hour to Karen's house. Todd is driving up to get Shari and me. Great great trip of a lifetime!!! Looking out at the beautiful Kansas landscape that I usually take for granted but now in comparison to others we've seen it really is quite gorgeous. The hay fields are being cut and all the fields are lush and green. 4:10 pm. Becky dropped off. Odometer 4598 mile trip 4:52 pm. Karen home. Odometer 4622 mile trip 6:20 pm. Shauna home. Odometer 4711 mile trip 9:30 pm. Shari home. Odometer 4750 mile trip

Headed out towards Colby, KS. Lots of windshield time thru Utah and Wyoming.  We made it to Northern Colorado about 4 pm. Still about 5 hours to our destination and a change of time zone. Lots of great snacks in the car. Bananas, chips (I finally found Munchos in Wyoming), Hershey miniatures (were getting down to just darks), leftover popcorn, and water. Trying to decide on good eats or quick eats for supper. I70 east heading for Limon, CO, or "lemon" as Siri calls it. Maybe eat there :)  still headed for Colby to stay all night. We did eat in Limon. Shari befriended a woman married 50 years. I think she wanted to take off with Sharis wedding ring. But instead just shared her life history. We took our last state sign Welcome picture as we entered Kansas. We came to quite a bumpy stop along the side of the road and finally got a pic in the dark. In bed in Colby, KS, at midnight. Our last night together...😭 But also miss our families and can't wait to see them. ...

Leaving beautiful St. Helena and headed home. First stop Salt Lake City. ETA 8 pm MDT Heading east thru California almost to Nevada. Passing thru Sierras. Just saw a beautiful and tiny waterfall down the mountain. Snow melt must have started :)  11:15 am almost to Nevada. I'm driving next. Need coffee!! ☕️:) I drove 4+ hours of nothingness thru Nevada. We could see the western edge of the Rockies which was cool. As we got to Utah we encountered the Bonneville Salt Flats and saw many mirages as we drove thru. We're now getting close to Salt Lake City. The Lake comes right up to the road. No real fish in Lake. Beaches are Salt. It's an average of 14 ft deep. Arrived at Holiday Inn Express 10 pm.

Woke up to wonderful breakfast of fresh pastries and rolls and fruit. Amazing. Sweetest strawberries 🍓 I've ever had. Headed out to the Petrified Forest. It's near Calistoga. Beautiful 1 mile hike thru the forest to see Mt. St. Helena which was the volcano that erupted a million years ago that the lava downed all the trees and left them buried in ash. Shopping in St. Helena. Chocolate at Woodhouse Chocolate. I had the Meyer Lemon. Yum. Some olive oil at Olivier Olive Oil. I'm home for a nap and Becky to read. Karen and Shari went to Travis AFB about an hour away to see a friend of Karen's from when they were stationed in Germany. They were having ice cream 🍦 Janet is preparing dinner for us. Zane Sr. sister and husband are traveling through and stopping for dinner. They are ~90 and retired educators. Can't wait to meet them. Fabulous meal (chicken, sweet potatoes, apples and onion with honey sauce) and a fabulous visit. Morgan and Linda were amazing peo...

Just getting around and heading to some wineries. Another beautiful day with highs expected in the 90s. Zane drove us to his friends (Joel Gott) 390 acres where they are redoing the original farmstead into an event center to entertain clients of his winery. It had a beautiful garden and greenhouse where the vegetables were grown for his burger stand called Gotts Roadside. We ate lunch there and had fish tacos, fish and chips, salads and burgers. Now we're off to visit wineries. First stop. Hall Winery. No tasting. Wine tasting at Mondavi.  Yummy. Sauvignon Blanc is my favorite.  13% alcohol. Yountviple, CA. Domain Chadon    Champagne grapes. But called sparkling California wine CLOSED TODAY :( New sparkling grape winery. On the edge of the valley. Mumm Napa. Great tasting. Loved the Brut Prestige and Cuvée Great nap this afternoon.  😴 We took Zane Sr. and Janet to dinner at Pizzaria Tra Vigne. I had a spinach lemon chicken piadini.  Very yum...

Fresh coffee and Boudin sourdough toast with blackberry jam for breakfast. Our hosts Zane and Janet are amazing. Nice long hot shower and some laundry right now. Off to eat lunch at the Culinary Institute where Caity and Eric are working. Maybe walk around a winery and then a surprise for the evening. We drove to Calistoga and walked around.  It was a quaint little town with shops and wine tasting. Dick Vermeil has a winery and shop we visited.  We bought balsamic vinegar and St. Helena olive oil to bring home. We visited Caitys Culinary Institute for lunch and had her own cream of potato soup and salads. We got chocolate and lemon mousses and a three layer torte.  Everything was heavenly. At 3 pm we left for the ferry ⛴ in Vallejo. It took us to San Francisco where we went to AT &T Park to watch the Royals take on the Giants.  It was Madison Bumgarner tshirt night. We brought them home for oil rags. 😂. We sat in center field in the front row bleachers in ...