It don't get much better than this - March in California
Green to extreme
I wish I could buy that valley and put an airstrip in it
It's the best time of the year
It only lasts for a few months - it's a California 'season'
Napa
North Bay
Schellville
Houses on a hill
Mt St Helena
Hacienda on a hill
Haciendas on a hill
Mt St Helena again
Russian River
Damn
Lake
Nice stuff
Terrain getting more rugged
Boonville's up there somewhere
Neat features below
Boonville 10 miles
The hills above Boonville
more of same
and even more
First sight
Could be Switzerland from here
Boonville proper
The bonnies NW of Boonville
cool place
tennis?
made it
Man, talk about q u i e t . . . .
Control tower
The throbbing hub of Boonville airport
at least there's a place to 'go'
and this...
But as I gazed at the bulletin board Kirk, the airport manager rode up on his Goldwing and invited me to his hangar
You never know what you're gonna find in a metal building out in the Boonies
My Project Luscombe guilt (carousing around in the Maule rather than working on my Luscombe) was completely eliminated
when I discovered that Kirk has not only one but THREE Luscombe projects lurking in his hangar
Luscombe wings
Kirk's shop is soooo cool. The sliding doors into the rear shop area were designed so that a Luscombe fuselage could roll right through
Kirk's next door neighbor Larry has this jewel. I'm not gonna tell you what it is - see if you can guess
The workmanship on this thing is top notch
Now, here's Larry and Kirk. These guys might not strike you as anything extraordinary
but tell me - why have they been blessed with my ultimate dream?
These dudes are my new heros
Boonville T-shirt - check
Kirk gave me the keys to his pickup - Whooaa, is this cool or what?
I headed into town
First stop was the Anderson Valley Brewery
I'm glad I had the truck - this would have been a major friggin' hike
To see a bear with antlers
On the way back - a curio shop
The Hotel
I ate a burritto at Alicias and headed back
Changing times - the two hundred dollar twelve pack
Time to head back
But I gotta use the infamous Boonville head first (just a #1)
really, really cool place
ditto
one last shot
Kirk gave me a tip about seeing the whales migrating so I head out towards the coast but I see a lot of fog so I turn East
and head for Snowy Mountain
I guess it's pretty obvious why they call it that
It's pretty stark this time of year
A bunch of snow in the middle of March - all by itself
This hump is around 7,000 feet so I'd say they are 'real' mountains
definitely a bunch of snow
but it's just one small group, nothing like the Sierra
Soon I'm down over Lake Berryessa
These guys look like they are racing for the same point
You can easily spot the jetskis
They don't leave wakes
The damn
Passing over Travis AFB
Back at base
The booty
Mission accomplished
B O O N V I L L E