Napa, California: To keep my birthMONTH going, we decided to go away in our little camper. But where? Borrego Springs would be the easiest option (close to home, I could follow the RV in our car, their golf course is open), but ho-hum. We go there so often. One place we love to visit but can never secure a campsite is Napa. Dang if they didn’t have one site available during the week (this week). True, the campground is small, but since it is situated at the county fairgrounds, is often full with events. We lucked out. Apparently nothing happening the end of October (during the weekdays) at the fairgrounds.
We didn’t make it all the way to Napa Saturday - not because live ammunitions were being fired over our stretch of I-5 - but due to the 3:30p start of the Oregon v Rutgers football game. Priorities! We took the last remaining campsite in Lodi, deployed the TV satellite dish and settled in to watch the Ducks throttle the Scarlet Knights 56-10.
A few days ago an order of Buffalo Wings were procured from our clubhouse. I froze the wings. Today they were thawed, tossed in a little extra wing sauce and heated in our RV easy bake oven. They were delicious.
Not much of a game to entertain us during our snacking, and I seriously dislike this whole BIG-10 league thang. The Oregon State Beavers played Lafayette College. I had to google them. (Easton, Pennsylvania. 2,700 students. Founded 1826. They play in the Patriot League.) I miss the PAC-12 so much.
AND NOW, A SHORT BREAK IN THE PROGRAM: The Brita water pitcher filter we have been using in our RV for years was no longer cutting it. The water in some of our long-visited campgrounds was just so awful tasting - even with using the Brita - we ended up buying bottled water by the gallon. Not good for the planet, but travelers often have few options, and it is always good to have a few gallons of fresh water in your RV - just in case. After much research, I bought a Culligan 10-cup ZeroWater purifier system. Operates the same as the Brita, but with more serious results. After washing the pitcher and installing the filter, I filled the 10-cup pitcher with water from our home reverse-osmosis tank. Obviously the meter on the ZeroWater pitcher read zero total dissolved solids. We used the water on this trip, and refilled the pitcher before going to bed. When we woke this morning, the meter read 32! What? How bad was the municipal water in Lodi? I dumped it out and tried again. Same reading. Then… duh… I re-read the directions and found an actual video describing how to properly insert the filter. Ooops. Did it wrong. Operator error. Once installed correctly, the Lodi water read ZERO. We are back in business and now I can recommend the Culligan ZeroWater system.
NOW, BACK TO OUR USUAL PROGRAM: Since Lodi is only about two hours from Napa, we dallied a bit this morning. I made potato hash for breakfast, Dave rode his bike many miles, and we didn’t check-out until check-out time - 11a - with a goal of finding #2 diesel… when there was zero #2 available at the intersection of I-5 and Highway 12 (where we camped last night). This Mercedes fuel issue is really getting to be a problem, Dear Reader. More and more diesel is 15-20% bio and our warranty is null if we put bio diesel in our tank. There are approximately 5,000,042 online forums stating “I put bio diesel in my tank with no issues” or “my Mercedes mechanic said bio-diesel is fine” etc. With thousands of RVs built on Mercedes Sprinter vans, and tens of thousands of Mercedes Sprinters used in American businesses, what are people supposed to do?
We arrived to the Napa Expo RV Park and settled-into our assigned site. The reservations were for the Taylor family, but the Griswold family arrived. Forget not getting the Culligan water filter installed right… we gave a new meaning to knucklehead.
First time this has happened to us, and I swear I squoozed the roll so this exact thing would not happen. Maybe because Highway 12 was mostly under construction and it was like driving over a washboard for two hours? We did find (what we think was) #2 diesel along the route though!
The paper towel fiasco was easily remedied by simply rolling it back up. DT had more serious issues outside. Somehow, somewhere, our sewer hose had mysteriously disappeared from its under-carriage holder/tube. Dave swears he latched the cap over the tube holding the hose. Never mind, it was gone. Dave can’t believe he didn’t notice it flying/slipping out behind our Winnegago. No one honked to let us know we were dragging a tail. Was it the bumpy highway? 25+ years of RVing, this is our first hose loss. Can’t even count all the hoses we have seen on the highways of America though. (He had a spare, so all is good.)
Then, water was shooting out of the bay holding our water heater. What the heck? Was Clark Griswold in this RV park? My Driver knew immediately the water pressure was too high in this campground. Everything was back to normal as soon as he screwed on the water pressure regulator… and now our water pressure sucks, but that is just RV life.
Settled in. Hooked-up. Rolled-back-up. Rested-up. We walked into Napa to buy English muffins at Model Bakery, and then explored the fabulous Oxbow Market, one of our favorite stops in all of America. First, we had a stroll around to see the changes - many - did a little shopping in our minds for later, had a glass of wine and a cheese plate for lunch, bought a pepper for our dinner tonight and walked back to our RV. Mission accomplished.
We had a fun chat with our Stockton neighbors after returning from our adventure, DT watched the SF Giant football game, and I fried up that pretty pepper with a chicken and red pepper sausage, then added cheese ravioli. Super easy and fast dinner. (We had a veggie tray for our appetizer.)
Until my next update, I remain, your guilty-of-littering correspondent.
Campground Information: Napa Valley Expo RV Park.