Last night I tried sleeping in the opposite direction in the car.  My head at the rear of the car and my feet towards the front seats.  That ended up working better and I felt like I had more room and was more comfortable.

I drove into Napa to a gym to find a shower.  Single day pass for $16, the cost of a shower. 🙂  I decided to head to Fremont after breakfast to make sure I had plenty of time for traffic, parking, getting lost, etc.  I arrived at the Tesla factory about noon.  They have a show room which doubles at the waiting room for the tour, so I’m here.  I will move my car to a non-charging spot once it has charged.  There is also free wifi in here, which is giving me time to catch up online.

Unfortunately, pictures and video are not permitted here.  I also don’t know if I will have to sign a NDA or anything like that.  I’ll share what I can later. 🙂

I wanted to thank everyone that has been messaging, texting and calling me.  It’s nice to have contact while on the road.  Helps me feel less alone on this trip.  I woke up to more messages this morning, which is great, too.

I’m also open to suggestions on how to eat healthy while on the road.  I’ve been having too much fast food.  I do have cashews and some healthy bars in the car for snacking, but I need to improve my meals.

After the tour, I’m planning to drive the 101 North.  I don’t think I’ll make it there before sunset, so I’ll look for a place to sleep just before the entrance and then drive it in the sunny hours tomorrow.

Wifi would be nice at the SuperChargers, but I understand that it’s probably best not to encourage people to stay longer than they need to.  The SuperChargers are going to get much more busy as the Model 3 rolls out.  I can tether to my phone but that eats the data plan.

BTW, California has a town named Yolo.

I changed my mind on doing more wine tastings today.  I think three might have been a bit more than needed yesterday and I woke up with a stiff back today.  I decided to make the trip up to Redding to satisfy an old curiosity.

Back in university, I had a goal to work for a video game localization company named Working Designs.  They were based in Redding.  Back then, Julie S and I were talking about marriage and moving to Redding.  Of course, things changed and I never went to Redding or Working Designs.  Working Designs closed its doors in 2005, but I was able to find the old address, so I decided to make the 200+ mile drive up to see Redding and the old location that would have been my workplace had everything worked out that way.

I stopped in Corning for a charge.  While there, I found a Petro truck stop a mile away that had pay showers.  After eating and charging, I drove over to Petro and tried the pay shower.  The facilities are quite nice and clean.  Definitely recommend it for people on the road.  The showers are pricey at $13, though.  My back had tightened up so much that the shower and walking were tough.  I hobbled back to the car and ate some ibuprofen which did help to loosen things up.

Arriving at the old Working Designs address was interesting.  It’s now a trucking company. It’s on the outskirts of town and not what I had imagined over the years.  I sat there in the lot for a while thinking about it.  Afterwards, I drove North through Redding looking around a bit and then I double-backed on I5 heading South again.

I decided to branch a bit and check out Sacramento.  Yesterday I noticed that my shoes are getting worn and ready for replacement.  I thought I might find some new ones at a mall in Sacramento and spend more time walking around getting light exercise and loosing up the back and legs.  I arrived at Arden Fair outlets. More expensive than I wanted to go, but a good place for walking around.  I found a restaurant serving SouthWestern food and had dinner.

Next I drove over to the SuperCharger in Vacaville.  This charger is located in the parking lot of a massive set of outlet shops, more sprawling than I’ve seen elsewhere.  I walked around while charging doing window shopping.  I found some shoes but didn’t want to pay that much.  I only bought two truffles while there. 😉

Finally, I headed back to the Napa SuperCharger that I slept at last night.  I’ll sleep here again tonight then head to Tesla tomorrow for the factory tour. 🙂   No pictures taken today.

Miles: 1828

The hotel I stayed in was in South San Francisco.  I headed North through downtown and over a fourth bridge.  I went over a different bridge each time to see different views.  The picture below was taken as I was heading North into downtown, before crossing the bridge out of the city.

Napa is quite different from San Francisco.  It’s more of a country setting.  The people I encountered are dressed more like small town folks rather than big city people.

My friend Mike provided a list of his recommended wineries to me before the trip, in sorted order by his preference.  I picked the top six and figured I would visit three on Monday and three on Tuesday.

There is a SuperCharger in Napa, just South of most of the wineries, and in the lot of a Circle K that is not, yet, open.

I arrived at Cakebread Cellers, first.

A group of six of us were part of the Select Tasting.  We were lead to a courtyard with granite benches, a table and a water feature.  The woman leading the tasting was originally from Ireland and had a strong accent.  Turns out two of the women participating in the tasting were also from Ireland and now live in Chicago.  They are musicians in Chicago and gave me the name of their pub so that I may visit when I’m back in Chicago. 🙂

I kept the glass from Cakebread Cellers.  We’ll see if it makes it to Indiana in one piece.

Next stop was Duckhorn Vineyards.  I was lead into a tasting room and sat at my own table.  Ann conducted my tasting and was very friendly and knowledgeable.  She gave me a bit extra a few times to help me compare tastes and try new things.  Very appreciated!  She also gave me some breadsticks to eat while tasting.  I was surprised to find my favorite at this location was a Merlot.  My favorite is usually a Cabernet Sauvignon.  I said as much and Ann said the Merlot was what they are famous for.  I took a picture of the name in case I ever find it in a store.

Last winery of the day was Frank Family Vineyards.  Another excellent tasting!  I stood at a tasting bar with two other couples, one from Texas and the other from Phoenix.  Turns out they live about 20 minutes from me.  We chatted a bit while tasting.  Frank Family Vineyards has some very large wine bottles scattered around the tasting room.  I asked and found out they are 9 Liter bottles!  I grabbed a pic that includes one of those bottles.

After the tastings, I had hoped to find a quiet spot to read for a while.  I tried a campground just down the street, but they wanted $35 to park my car for the night.  I wandered around a bit and finally went into town and ate some Thai food.  After that, I returned to the SuperCharger location, put the car into sleep mode, and laid down to read in the back of the car.  I slept there for the night.

I checked to see when the Computer History Museum opened before going to sleep so I would have time to leave before staff arrived and saw me in the parking lot.  I set my alarm for 8.  Turns out that wasn’t the primarily used lot anyway.

After waking up, I grabbed a bit more charge while deciding what to do.  I went to Starbucks for a sandwich and black coffee.  I noticed a gym next door.  After eating and leaving the coffee to cool in the car, I walked into the gym and asked about a one day pass.  I was given one for free for the first day.  Overtime Fitness in Mountain View, thank you!  I had brought my workout clothes with me, so I changed into them and did a light workout.  They had a cycle with a screen that acted like a video game.  Might inspire me to workout more. 🙂  I was able to have a good shower in the gym afterwards.

I caught up with some family on the phone and then decided to check out the Computer History Museum.  $15 for the general admission.  I spent about an hour inside walking through the guided tour.  It was odd seeing many aspects of the past 20 years of my career in a history museum.  🙂  I took way too many pictures, too.  A few:

The next stop was in the Oakland area to meet up with my friend, Mike.  After meeting his family and dog, Mike directed us to his favorite burger place.  It was great!  Easily one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.  After lunch, Mike took me up a ridge near his house to see some young redwood trees.  Their bark is soft to the touch.  It easily compresses under hand pressure.  It is difficult to capture the scale of the trees in pictures.  Some random people included in one to try for scale.

After saying goodbye to Mike, I decided to head over the bridge North of San Francisco then head South over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Mike warned me that some bridges will charge tolls heading towards San Francisco.  The first bridge, from Richmond into San Quentin insists on cash payment for the toll or the QuickPass system.  I turned around and found an ATM to get some cash and then headed back to pay the $5 in cash.

On the other side, I stopped to check out a few outlet malls and walk around a bit.  Then I decided to head over the Golden Gate Bridge.  This toll is $7.50 and the sign says to keep driving and the toll will be automatically charged.  Curious to see how that works out for me.

And a view of downtown San Francisco in the distance just after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge:

I drove through congested traffic and arrived at the San Mateo SuperCharger after dark.  While charging I walked over to a Whole Foods store to look for dinner and maybe some snacks for the car.  After seeing the prices, I decided the Chipotle next door would be a cheaper dinner option. 🙂

Feeling tired, I looked around to see if I could find a cheap deal on a hotel for tonight.  I managed to get a room at the airport Holiday Inn for just under $100 so I’m writing from a hotel room tonight.  Going to enjoy a shower and some sleep in a bed.  Tomorrow, I’m thinking Napa, and hopeful to receive a confirmation email from Tesla that I can do a factory tour here in Fremont on Tuesday afternoon.  Still up for California: Redding and the Avenue of the Giants.

I didn’t capture the trip information from the car before heading up to my room.  I believe I passed 1100 miles in the trip, so far.