After homeschool, I went for a bike ride.  The map showed a serpentine route across the mountains to the East, a sign of a tasty climb in my future.  The ride started out with a slight climb as the vineyards of Mendocino County rolled by:

Yes, this would be a good climb:

As the road continued to climb, the vineyards stretched almost to the horizon:

It turned out to be a five mile ascent with almost 2000 feet of vertical, which is a Category 2 climb according to the UCI ratings.  The descent on the far side was dicey, as the road condition was extremely poor.  Finally I ended up in the town of Lakeport, on the shores of Clear Lake:

Lakeport has the smallest Sears I’ve ever seen:

I thought this stand was funny: Closed! Closed! Now Open! Keep Out!

Warning signs as I started back up the climb to get back to the RV:

Lots of grapes on the Lakeport side of the mountains:

Here’s a view of the eastern climb.  Note the road appears twice on the left and once on the right of the photo as it claws its way up the mountain:

At least the western descent was on good road:

After the ride, we called Milano Winery and were told that we could come for a tour.  We were thrilled and flattered that Deanna, who owns the winery with her husband, was willing to take time out of her day to show us around the winery and explain to us how wine is made.  Thanks Deanna!

Here Deanna is showing us a small run of wine being made.  She pushed through the crust of skins to show us the wine below, which was outgassing carbon dioxide as the yeast convert the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol.  Fascinating stuff!

Leaving Milano Winery (thanks again!), we headed south and stayed the night at the Home Depot of Windsor, CA.

  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.