Watcha talking about, Willits?

It's fucking FREEZING when we wake up for our second morning in Sonoma. The forecast promises 30C later, but right now, it's around 6C. I'm awake just before 06:00, so write yesterday's journal, and try and have a quiet coffee without waking Vicks and Ant.

We plan to leave in decent time, and we're on the road by 09:30. First up is a stop at the Old Faithful Geyser. Arriving, the dude at the front desk tell us that the geyser has recently been erupting every 2 - 2 1/2 hours. Not the most promising of starts. He follows up by saying he's been at his desk for 2 hours, and nothing yet, so we might just be in luck. We sit in the warming sun and wait. After barely ten minutes, we're rewarded with an eruption that lasts maybe 10 minutes. There's a whiff of sulphur in the air, which Ant and Vicki both claim is NOT associated with them. There's also the most insane rainbow where the geyser spray settles. We couldn't have got luckier with timing....

We head further up the road to Kelseyville, where we all feel an urgent need for beer o'clock. We stop at the Brick Tavern - population 2. It's not quite the friendly, saloon of Thompson's Corner, but it does the job. The JD and coke is probably more than I should have whilst driving...

Our next stop is a buffalo ranch, where we pick up some steaks for the BBQ later. As we head on towards Willits, I propose an afternoon of relax, as opposed to the two hour round trip to the coast. My travelling partners literally and figuratively bite off my hand. We stop into Willits for lunch at a brilliant sandwich café called the Loose Caboose - Reuben dips for me and Ant, and a bacon and avocado concoction for Vicki. They are BRILLIANT. We head to our accommodation - a proper cabin in the woods. It's rustic - and Vicki is not delighted...

We head down into town again to grab groceries, and then chill out at the cabin for the afternoon. The bison steaks are astonishingly good. Kind of like venison, in that it's a red meat flavour, but with less of the natural fat of beef. I open the disgracefully expensive Pinot Noir that I bought yesterday at Patz and Hall to accompany our dinner, and we settle down to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark. The temperature is falling ,and I suspect we're all going to be fucking freezing in the morning.Read more