Fire and smoke. That’s what was waiting for us at our Tuesday outing. So we went west instead of east. We were in search of the Russian River, but really didn’t know how to find it. Have you ever planned a trip like that?

We were four women in a car with a destination in mind and no road map to get us there. We did know the names of some cities we thought were along the Russian River and managed to find them.

Fortunately Karen had a full gas tank because this was a 12 hour road trip! Here are the towns we managed to find: Winters, St. Helena, Calistoga, Geyserville, Clearlake, Rumsey, Guinda, and Cache Creek Casino. 

Karen drove and Kelley navigated. Marlene pointed out the outdated call boxes by calling “box!”  Karen was outraged over “End Road Construction” signs because we shouldn’t be ending fixing our roads. And, I napped–I’m the oldest! I’ve always fallen asleep in a moving vehicle if I’m not driving, so it wasn’t the company. When I woke up from my little nap, I asked where we were; they didn’t know.

What we did know was that we had a great time. I’ll tell you more in part two of the road trip. I may not be able to tell you exactly in which town the picture was taken because there were so many and my memory is blending them together. I did say that I’m the oldest!

We started taking pictures in Winters.

Here you see the old and the new.