Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

This is the first in a series of three, and part 29 of a series.
[Index] [Part 2] [Part 3]

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09 November 2007

Almost all of the Raven’s Quest stories have been done on a motorcycle. Not so this one. We had Beastie at the rig overnight, so I rode him back to the storage unit to be stowed. This done, I set out on my first ever road trip in the RV. Not trusting that we would have internet the whole way, I had made notes on all the Napa County state historic landmarks and there was one in the city of Napa itself.

There is a certain very great charm to being a passenger in the RV. It’s like being a tortoise–our home is on our backs, or at least our wheels. We can stop by the roadside and make a sandwich. It’s actually very surreal, and I wonder if the novelty and fun of that is ever going to wear off. :)

We were going to skip Napa, but when I saw a sign pointing to that one state historical marker, I changed my mind and Don indulged me. As usual, the signs were not continued after luring you off the highway and we were left driving in the general direction of downtown without much clue where the landmark actually was. He drove me up and down narrow residential streets to get to a pretty church that turned out to not be the pretty church that I wanted. I finally consulted my notes and found out where the pretty church that I did want was, and off we went again.

Knocking chunks off trees en route, Don tried again, and this time I saw what I wanted but there was nowhere for a 26′ monster to park. By now we had realized that RV-snarfing was not a viable option and so when he finally found a space big enough it was several blocks away. I hiked. It worked out.

Napa’s historic downtown did not disappoint, but without a map or guide of any kind I didn’t get the most out of it. Streets lined with trees, their leaves drifting downwards now in a cacaphony of gold and red, proved the perfect foil to some wonderful old Victorian houses. The historic landmark was the Presbyterian church, a gorgeous and beautifully painted wooden structure that towered over everything with its pointed steeple.

Nearby was an old art deco theatre, not for movies any more but owned by the church. I decided to go ahead and walk around some of the streets to see what else I could discover.

I found wonderful architecture and a central area that was being torn up not just with jackhammers but with a great big crane. Outside the post office, an otherwise generic stone monstrosity, stone lamps provided a bit of interest and imagination. I found a large stone full of mortar holes, used by Native Americans to grind food, that had been taken from its original location to become street furniture :: sigh ::.

I was glad I took the extra time to wander around, and found a few extra plaques to go with them. Don, on the other hand, was quite content to stay in the RV, trying to find wireless, so it worked out very well indeed.

Between Napa and Calistoga it seemed that every few miles there was a sign pointing to some state historic landmark or other. Given how cumbersome it had been to drive through Napa, I figured that RV-snarfing was not a viable hobby and that we would just have to come back with a motorcycle or two. I therefore refrained from excitedly asking Don to turn off at every sign saying “historic landmark ahead,” and as a result we were in Calistoga within the hour.

This is where RV-snarfing is just fine: you park it in a campground within a block or so of downtown, and then you put on your best walking shoes and have at it with your penguin, GPS unit and camera.

To be continued…

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• Raven’s Quest Part 29b: Calistoga (0)

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