21 In ’21: Highlights From A Road Trip

For the September installment of my 21 In ’21 series, I’m sharing 21 highlights from the 14-day road trip referenced in last month’s 21 In ’21: Packing For A Road Trip post. Up until now, I’ve been a bit secretive about the details of this road trip primarily due to concerns over personal safety while traveling but now I’m ready to share all the details.

Like in 21 In ’21: Blogs To Discover, 21 In ’21: Instagram Accounts To ❤, 21 In ’21: Delightful Reads, 21 In ’21: Helpful Hacks, 21 In ’21: May Flowers, 21 In ’21: Scams To Avoid, 21 in ’21: Love, Hate, And Desire, and 21 In ’21: Packing For A Road Trip, I’ve set out this year to publish a post on the 21st of each month that lists 21 of my top recommendations/favorites/ideas as they relate to that month’s topic. Limiting the highlights of the trip to 21 might seem restrictive (or perhaps excessive) however, we did cover a lot of ground so let’s get on with it.

When the packing post was published, we were already on day 3 of our trip although I tried to make it sound like the trip was still pending (did I fool anyone?). We left home on August 19 and returned home on September 2. As retirees, the length of the trip was limited primarily by economics and not by the number of vacation days we had available to use. Another constraint was that we didn’t want to incur the added crowds and costs associated with Labor Day weekend. There were three key objectives for this trip; one, to see our daughter who had moved to Olympia, Washington this past June; two, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in Lake Tahoe where we’d spent our honeymoon; and three, to visit more state capitals.

Our itinerary had us traveling through central California and Oregon as we made our way to see our daughter. After several days there, we’d make our way to Boise and then head south to Lake Tahoe after a visit to Carson City. Lake Tahoe was to be our last stop before heading home and we’d be there for two nights. You likely recall that there were several active brush fires in California and Oregon during this time. The Caldor Fire was the one that was close to Lake Tahoe. Nine days into the trip, we decided that it would be best to avoid the area due to the smoke and very poor air quality. A couple of days later was when the town had to be evacuated due to the fire threat. So instead, we celebrated our anniversary in Paso Robles.

We achieved two of the three objectives and we did still celebrate our anniversary so it went well overall. The trip was more of a meander than a “how fast can we get there” type of adventure. In six locations we stayed for only one night, two nights each in two others, and four nights in another. The furthest we drove in a single day was the 425 miles from Boise to Reno. I’ll share a few more statistics at the end of the post. As for the highlights, I’ll be brief and let the photos do most of the talking.

1) Bravo Farms
In preparation for this trip, I looked for places along our way for periodic stops to stretch our legs and perhaps get something to eat. Our travel distance for day 1 was 350 miles with our first night to be in Modesto. Why Modesto? Because a hotel room there was significantly cheaper than in Sacramento which was about the furthest we’d wanted to travel that day. A mid-point stop on our way was at Bravo Farms in Kettleman City.

2) Hilmar Cheese
Also on day 1, we stopped at Hilmar Cheese Company in Hilmar. There was an informative display in the visitors’ center as well as a cafe and shop. Since it was mid-week, there were hardly any people at either of these first two stops which we were quite happy about.

At the request of The Husband, I’d attempted to find eateries that had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. We only made it to a few of the several that I found, one of which we went to that first night. The restaurant we had dinner at was Bauer’s Downtown Gastropub. We split two of the burgers; the briebg and the lamb aka (no photos). Both were delicious and we highly recommend this place if you’re ever in Modesto.

3) California Capitol building
After breakfast the next morning, we headed on towards Sacramento for a photo-op in front of the capitol building and then took a stroll through the grounds. On this trip, we found that none of the state legislatures were in session so there were no crowds and nearby parking was easy to find.

4) Jelly Belly
Y’all, I was so excited about this next stop and Jelly Belly did not disappoint. Besides the well-designed and easy-to-navigate self-guided tour of the actual factory, you can partake in the Chocolate & Wine Experience which offers specifically match pairs for tasting. And there’s a café as well as a souvenir shop. Fun for the whole family!

5) Green Barn in Red Bluff
I’ve got no photos but dinner on day 2 of the trip was at The Green Barn Whiskey Kitchen in Red Bluff where we were staying that night. This place wasn’t on the Triple-D list but the food was fabulous.

6) Pump House in Talent
On day 3 we made it into Oregon and paid a call on long-time friends, Bill and Deb, who’d moved to Ashland about 20 years ago. The Husband and Bill’s relationship goes back over 50 years. It was our first time seeing their home which was lovely, and then we had a great meal at Pump House Burgers & Brew.

7) Junkyard Brats
The lunch stop on day 4 was at a place I found on the Triple-D list called The Junkyard Extreme Burgers & Brats. This place is a little out of the way but worth the small detour off the main highway. Also, the story of how this place got started is interesting to read. On the left is The Husband’s “Slaw Dog” and on the right is my “Lancaster Dog” with sauerkraut. YUM!

Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of these highlights are related to food in one way or another? 🤣

8) Oregon Capitol building
Later that day we made it into Salem for our capitol building photo-op and stroll through the grounds. It was Sunday afternoon so there were not many people around and it was again easy to find nearby parking.

9) Breakfast in Salem – Busick Court
Downtown Salem is quite picturesque. After stopping at the capitol building, we’d made our way to Waterfront Park for a bit of a stroll in the late afternoon. Our hotel wound up being a sketchier part of town but the accommodations were fine. On this trip, we’d mostly stayed at Hilton properties which typically offer breakfast as part of your stay. This one place didn’t so we wound up back in the downtown area the next morning for breakfast at Busick Court Restaurant.

10) LTD Ranch in Rainier, Oregon
The next stop on our itinerary was to visit with friends who now live in Rainier, Oregon (not to be confused with Mt Rainier in Washington). We’ve known Jenny for about 18 years or so when her oldest daughter and our daughter first became friends in 2nd grade. Jenny and her boyfriend Larry made the move up to Oregon 5 years ago and now live on a 40-acre spread. The house is a fixer project in progress that Larry is doing mostly himself. Their response, when asked if they’d named the place, was “LTD Ranch, Living The Dream” and I can definitely see why that is. The place is like a slice of heaven. We went out on a couple of ATVs as they showed us around the property.

11) Daughter
By the end of day 5, we’d finally achieved our primary objective of seeing our daughter and her boyfriend Will in their new place. It was late when we got there but I wasn’t going to spend another day without hugging her. The hotel we were staying at was only a few miles away so our travels for the day were pretty much done.

12) Riverbird Farm
Jo and Will have teamed up with another young couple and together they have started a venture called Riverbird Farm. Their business model is small-batch pastured poultry and they received their first batch of 300 chicks while we were visiting. The four of them are renting a small house on a 40-acre parcel located west of Olympia and they have a use agreement for some of the land as well as space in the outbuildings. The website should be up soon but for now, you can follow along with the daily farm happenings on their Instagram account.

13) A Mini Meet-Up
Once The Husband and I had our itinerary for this trip set, I got in contact with the great Catherine Grace O who you might know from her blog Mastering Modern Midlife. I met Catherine through Forever Fierce which she started in 2017. Knowing that she now lives in the general Olympia/Tacoma/Seattle region, I’d hoped that Catherine would be up for a meet-up one afternoon while I was in area. She indeed was and asked about including two other gals, Lana and Julia, which made us a party of four. Lana I already knew from Forever Fierce and Julia was a delight to get to know.

Catherine, Lana, Julia, me

14) Olympia
On day 8 of the trip, we made our way into Olympia proper with Jo and Will which included stops at a couple of their favorite places. One of those places was a secondhand store called Fun Junk and the other was Juju’s Iced Cream & Frozen Custard. Besides the iced creams (see the website for the explanation about the “d”) and frozen custards, Juju’s also has vegan soft serve which is why this place is a favorite of our dairy-allergic daughter. And the iced cream is delicious!

Another stop that day was at the capitol building for the usual photo-op and stroll. Once again since the legislature wasn’t in session, it was easy to find nearby parking and there were no crowds. This might be the only set of our state capital photos to include another family member.

Washington

Washington

15) Idaho in 24 hours or less; Goathead Fest, capitol building, Home2Suites, Bar De Nay
In the late afternoon of day 9, after spending the earlier part of it with our daughter, we set out east from the Olympia area towards Idaho. It’s over 550 miles to Boise so we’d planned to spend the night in Richland, Washington which is roughly halfway in between. We got in late and left after breakfast so I can’t tell you much about the town other than what we found on Wikipedia.

We arrived in the area of the Boise capitol building at about 4:30 in the afternoon (we lost an hour as we were now in the Mountain Time Zone). Much to our surprise, there was quite a bit of activity going on nearby. A few of the streets were closed to traffic but we managed to find parking without much problem. Turns out that in a park across from the building was the 2021 Boise Goathead Fest. It’s not what you might be thinking unless you know what a goathead is. We got our pictures done and then headed to our hotel.

When we asked the woman who’d checked us in at the hotel for a dinner location recommendation that we could walk to, she suggested Bar De Nay which gratefully offered patio seating. In the adjacent courtyard, the Basque Museum was hosting its annual Wine Fest which included live music and dance performances. Our dinner was delicious and the entertainment was a bonus. The next morning we were on our way to Reno.

16) The Row in Reno
It was a long, long drive from Boise to Reno. There is a lot, and I mean a lot, of nothing-to-see along the way. And no, I’ve never driven through Texas but I now have an idea of what to expect if ever I do. We’d be spending two nights in Reno so we were girded for the long drive with the knowledge that we’d have essentially no traveling the following day. Being unfamiliar with Reno in general, we opted to look for a Caesars’ property to stay at and decided on the Silver Legacy which turned out to be very nice. We had no idea what “The Row” was but we had wound up smack in the middle of it.

For those also unfamiliar with The Row, it’s three different Caesars properties that are lined up in a row with enclosed bridges that connect one to the next. Once inside, you don’t need to go outside to get to the next one. Whether it was due to the fires or because it was the week before the Labor Day weekend, there weren’t a lot of people in the casinos. Nevada does/did have an indoor mask mandate in place that was diligently being enforced so that alleviated some of our COVID concerns. Oregon and Washington also had indoor mask mandates; Idaho didn’t but we wore ours when inside of a building anyway.

17) Carson City
With Reno as our home base, we headed out on a day trip to Carson City for the last of our capitol building photo-ops and stroll. And again, there were no crowds or problems with finding parking since the legislature wasn’t in session. There was a lot of smoke in the area, though so opted to wear our masks as we were walking around. Due to the small footprint and the densely planted area in front of the building, it was a challenge to find a spot for our photos but we managed.

18) Virginia City
After Carson City, we headed over to Virginia City where the air was thankfully less smoky. It’s a lovely, picturesque town that looks like something from a movie set but is true to life. Lots of shops to wander through and beverage establishments to wet your whistle.

The Husband and I had first visited Virginia City thirty years ago when we’d been on our honeymoon. Back then, we’d had one of those old-time photos taken of us and on this trip, we decided that it was time for a new one.

19) Paso Robles – Austin Hope, Summerwood, Volatus

Our last two nights were spent in Paso Robles. It was another long day of travel to get there from Reno, almost 400 miles but it nearly felt like we were home once we got there because the area is so familiar to us. Day 14 of the trip was our anniversary which we spent visiting a couple of wineries that my brother-in-law recommended to us. He and my sister are more frequent visitors to the area than we are and have some insider knowledge.

The first winery we went to was Austin Hope which we really liked. The grounds are beautiful and there is a really nice set-up for the tasting areas. We were inside a barn-like structure and there are outdoor pavilions as well. We found several of their wines to our liking. The second one, not so much and not worth mentioning.

Before leaving for home the next day, we made a stop at Summerwood Winery where my sister works part-time in the tasting room. Again we found wines to our liking and bought a few bottles to bring home. The last winery we stopped at was Volatus, a small but mighty winery that makes fabulous wines. It is always a pleasure to visit with Hal and Victoria.

20) Anniversary
Unlike the big shindig 30 years ago, our anniversary celebration was an understated one spent with just the two of us enjoying a delicious dinner and an evening stroll in Downtown Paso Robles.

21) Home
It was a fun trip but it’s good to be home again. I cannot think of another trip other than when I was a child (or in college) when I’ve been away from my home for this length of time. In all, our travel time totaled over 60 hours and we covered over 3,200 miles. Would you believe that during the final drive home The Husband asked me when and where are we going next? Stay tuned, there are already a couple of trips in the planning stage for 2022.

Wrapping up on these highlights, do you set objectives or constraints when you’re planning a road trip? What types of attractions are tops on your list of places to visit? Or are you the “drive straight through” type? And, one last question … how are you doing now that eight months and 21 days have passed in 2021?

Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Note: This is an unsponsored post; however, some or all of the links to clothing items are associated with an affiliate program where I earned a few cents for each click.

Photos: MMPerez