"THELMA & LOUISE?" Not quite!!!

Travel #2 – San Francisco Adventure Feb 2015

PART 2 : San Francisco Adventure – Napa Valley

Woke up the next morning, all packed and ready to go and Kamisah came into my room with that nervous look. She has to be the driver, and so I tried my very best not to make it worse by telling her that even though I can’t drive, I’m still the best co-pilot she can ever find. I don’t sleep (even on a 25 hours flight), and I am very good at reading maps, thank goodness we have google map! Would have been better if there’s Waze at that time.

Kamisah’s friend, Laurie, has arranged for us to stay at her house, the whole house to ourselves, while she stays with her mom. How very sweet of her. This is what Kamisah would call a reunion with her BF Ms Laurie Gordon! USA Les Clefs d'Or/Napa, Beautiful American Barbie, that is what Kamisah call her...national treasure of Napa! Award winner for best Concierge/Napa. She planned our itinerary, wine tasting, and so much more.

Our road trip begins….from Union Square to Napa Valley…..Oh and not forgetting Thelma (Kamisah) has to drive on the left side which is totally the opposite of SG road.

The Worried and Full-On Concentration of Thelma Kamisah and the Serious Face of the Co-Pilot Louise Noria. 😁 😁 😁

Although our journey was tensed we do manage to enjoy the scenic route, well me at least I think. The first one, we drove through was of course the Golden Gate Bridge, then the beautiful Rainbow Tunnel.

Even though we made a few wrong turns we both make sure that we are calm as long as we have a full tank. I make sure that I do not make “Thelma” panic by shouting that we made a wrong turn, instead just encouraged her that there will be another exit that we can take, even if it means it’s a longer route.

The Beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, Rainbow Tunnel, and some scenic route

Excerpt from Wikipedia.

A tunnel officially known as the Robin Williams Tunnel[2] (previously and informally referred to as the Waldo Tunnel) is located at the highest elevation on US 101/SR 1 along the Waldo Grade. The first bore of the tunnel was completed in 1937 and the second in 1954. The archways at the south facing ends of the bores were painted in rainbows by a Caltrans employee, Robert Halligan, and for this reason the tunnel is occasionally referred to as the "Rainbow Tunnel".
After the death of Robin Williams in 2014, a petition was started on Change.org to rename the Waldo Tunnel as the Robin Williams Tunnel.[3] A bill submitted by California Assemblyman Marc Levine, after consulting with Williams' family, passed the California State Assembly in April 2015 on a vote of 77-0,[4] and the State Senate in June 2015 on a vote of 37-0.[5] The official sign was installed in 2016.
As San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge are hidden from the northern approach of US 101/SR 1 by hills, travellers along this route receive their first view of the city and the bridge upon exiting the tunnel's southbound bore.

Morning was foggy as well, but I reckon Kamisah’s driving is pretty good.
Can’t upload the video of the drive as I still need to learn how to on Steemit. To use another platform to upload video and then to Steemit is such a chore. Hopefully in future,we are able to upload the videos as easy as uploading the pics, by dragging it or copy and paste it.

We managed to reach Napa at last, although it was longer than expected as we made a couple wrong turns. We were supposed to meet Kamisah’s friend at an Inn and was supposed to find the street where the Inn is. This co-pilot, Louise keep telling Thelma to go to the main street. And of course Thelma keeps shouting back at me we are at the main street. So I told her that we are not! Both are too tired to talk to each other as we have been driving for several hours and so we were irritated at each other over small things as we keep going round and round in circles going to the same road without finding the Inn. I swear that we have passed the road to the Inn a couple of times because as soon as we reached the Inn, I did not mentioned that the road we just pass was very familiar. I’m pretty sure Thelma would have barked at me or even bite me.

After several wrong turns we finally found the Inn, amidst the silence in the car, as we were both angry at each other for getting lost. Me telling her we are not on the main street and she keeps rebutting me and insist that we are!

As soon as we get to stretch our legs and get some coffee, we are less tensed and decided to take a walk before we meet our friend Laurie to go to her house. As soon as we passed one particular junction after the coffee break, Kamisah shouted and point at something…..

She shrieked loudly and laugh at the same time, “That’s what you meant by Main Street!” I was blurr for a second and said that’s what I have been telling her all along when we were driving! I am a good co-pilot and I can read maps! I started laughing as soon as she explains that all this while she thought I was saying go to the “Main Road”, and she keeps on saying we are we are, and me saying no we are not on the Main Street!!! So we both cracked up laughing at the misinterpretation of the word Main Street & Main Road! Next time I will remember to tell Kamisah that the name of the road is call Main Street and we need to look out for sign that is Main Street!! Even though we are on a main road the name of the street is called main street!!!

Kamisah thought it was bloody hilarious about the Main Street situation

We arrived at Laurie’s sanctuary, our homestay at Napa, we had the entire house to ourselves. 2 floors with 2 large bedrooms, a house surrounded by vineyards in Yountville. Laurie welcomes us with an open arms and even prepared us with a basket full of welcome gift (filled with fruits, cookies, juices, chips, cheese, crackers) and a bottle of champagne. Her house is decorated beautifully, and Kamisah and I decided that we shall sip our champagne in the evening after our wine tour and just chill by the fireplace. I felt like I was in a giant bedroom when I had to climb on steps just to get on the bed (check out how high the bed is in below pics) and it's huge!

Laurie had planned our itinerary the next day, so we decided to make our way to the first vineyard, called Ehlers Estate by ourselves.

Mind you after a long drive from the City and having a wine tasting session, is never such a good idea when you promise Thelma that you will be the co-pilot of the day. As the evening starts to draws nearer and after tasting several wines, we decided to head back to Lauries’. Thelma panic once again because the co-pilot was exhausted and fell asleep (claimed to never sleep) on the way home after drinking the wine. Kamisah depended on me to give her direction, so she was sweating like a “….” driving with a sleeping co-pilot home. Poor Thelma. But we manage to get home safe and sound and Kamisah was not a very happy driver LOL.

Well folks, it is after all “Thelma & Louise” adventure!!! Stay tune for the 3rd installment of SF adventure.

If you enjoy reading my travelling adventures, there are more to be found on below links :

1. https://steemit.com/teammalaysiababes/@noriaakip/the-day-we-became-queen-of-the-jungle

2. https://steemit.com/teammalaysiababes/@noriaakip/part-deux-the-day-we-became-queen-of-the-jungle

3. https://steemit.com/ocd-resteem/@noriaakip/part-three-the-day-we-became-queen-of-the-jungle

4. And the 1st part of San Francisco adventure : https://steemit.com/ocd-resteem/@noriaakip/if-you-going-to-san-francisco