Gateway to Napa? – Vacaville, California

Aerial View of Vacaville, California; image from flickr by Derrick Coetzee

Our stop in Vacaville was one of convenience as it afforded a good starting point for the next day’s visit to Napa Valley without paying the much higher Napa lodging rates! It seems like a nice enough place to live, but I doubt if its a destination spot for many vacationers, although, to be fair, we were just passing through.

Lovelock; image from flickr by Ken Lund

This part of Lovelock, Nevada was much more aesthetically appealing than the barren lands one sees while traveling I-80 in northern Nevada.

What we did:

He said:

The trip west from through northern Nevada is not very scenic and, to say the least, a bit boring. But one way to keep it exciting is to have a digestive system that doesn’t react kindly to corn beef hash for breakfast! Restrooms along I-80 are many, many miles further apart than my system was able to accommodate. The mad dash for numerous public facilities, much to my chagrin, all too often resulted in me performing a nervous, St. Vitus-like dance as I begged permission to cut to the front of the line! Fortunately, after about 4 stops over 200 miles, my gastronomical ailment subsided and our travel interruptions were kept to the more normal, and predictable, gas and food breaks!

I was a bit preoccupied to absorb much of the wonderful scenery in the Tahoe National Forest area we passed through on our way to Vacaville! But here we are in sunny southern California and, after a few glasses of wine, all was fine!

Lake Tahoe from the NorthEast Side; image from flickr by Wouter Kiel

She said:

We did end up making a few more stops than planned. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they were at the gas stations, and I have to say that the rest stops in Nevada leave much to be desired.  They are minimal at best and NO soap!!  We stopped in Lovelock for lunch.  There were 4 possibilities and decided to drive into the town to see what we could find.  We ended up at the “Cowpoke Cafe“.  It was clean, and boasted of homemade everything, and I had the best club sandwich with avocado in my life.

We drove through a ton of construction when we first got into California, and finally Vacaville, CA where we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. They have a happy hour with complimentary beer, wine, soft drinks, chicken wings, cheese and crackers, and a salad. Guess what we did for dinner?????  By-the-way, it was a 100 degrees everyday!!!

The next day it was 80′s and WINE COUNTRY!!!!

Category: Lovelock, Utah, United States, Vacaville, West, what we did, where we ateTags: California, Cowpoke Cafe, Holiday Inn Express, Lovelock, Utah, Nevada, Vacaville |