YOLO County - Yes it's really called that. Our week in Winters, California

How can something so beautiful sound so awful?

After our truck woes, our week at Lake Solano was cut short by a couple of days.  This was a shame as this is a campground that doesn't get heavy use during the week.  In fact the first night we were there (Wednesday) we had our part of the campground totally to ourselves. Oh except for the Peacocks.  The place is teeming with peacocks, they are everywhere. Equally beautiful and noisy - they make a screech like a cat being strangled. Apparently they were introduced by the previous owners of the park to try and keep the rattlesnake population in check.  I don't know if that worked, but they seem to like it here, as they clearly stayed and started making babies. 

The ground filled up from Thursday onwards, which we expected given it is summer.  Some of the sites here are right on the water and would be a real treat to stay in.  We were up a little from the lake, but still a pretty spot and served our needs well.  We arrived on the Wednesday and first order of business after parking up, was to go and find somewhere to watch the second world cup semi-final.  

Winters, CA

We had watched the amazing game yesterday when Germany beat Brazil in humiliating fashion, so we were excited to see the next one.  We found a great spot in Winters, called Preserve.  The food and beer were good, but the game did not meet the standard.  Maybe because we had witnessed the excitement of yesterday's game our expectations were out of whack - but this game was boring in the extreme.  Argentina and The Netherlands basically just trying not to lose.  No-one really won the game, the other team just scored less penalties at the end. But we did get the result we wanted - Argentina through to the final. 

That night at the campground was magical as we had zero neighbors, so we sat outside as the temperature cooled down and felt very lucky to be doing what we are doing.  Blissful.  

The campground was not my favorite, the facilities were run down and the Canada geese seem to be able to produce an incredible amount of poop it was everywhere. But the location was definitely a redeeming feature. The lake (more like a river) was pretty and we rented some kayaks and had a beautiful paddle on glass-like water, and even better it was a couple of miles from a brewery; Berryessa Brewing Company.  We cycled up there on Friday and had great beer and southern food (yep Oyster Po-boy with slaw) from a Sacramento food truck. Finally the town of Winters was small and cute, and is making real efforts to bring the wonderful bounty from its fertile lands to the entire community not just us folks who like to pay double for our organic food.  

Serene water at Lake Solano

Time to move on to The Russian River; but not without a final pit stop to watch the World Cup final at our wonderful friends house, who live near to Lake Solano and happen to be Argentinian, it's always good to have a team to cheer for. Double downer; we didn't get the result we wanted, and also the final means the World Cup is over.  The first 4 weeks of our travel have been punctuated by visits to sports bars to watch our favorite teams play.  So just another 4 years until it all happens again, who knows where we will be by then.