Hwy 29, with a rebel yell

"Let's go the direct way, the Garmin says we can" I tell him.

His eyes widen and he smirks at me. "It's a great motorcycle road, but with the bus and trailer..." he trails off with a worried scrunch in his eyes.  It's my week to drive the bus. I wonder for a moment if it's scarier to actually drive the twisty road or WITNESS the driving of the twisty road. Based on my experience following him down Scott Mountain, I think the witnessing might be more gut-wrenching.

We compared Waze, the Garmin, and Trucker Path.  All say we are green-lighted for Highway 29 from Lakeport to the Napa Valley.

I lived in Napa for a dozen years or so a long time ago; he grew up around here.  He knows this road well.  I am brimming with overconfidence.  Finally he shrugs.  And we're off.

The first 3/4 of the ride up the mountain the roads are beautiful, wide, and freshly paved.  I'm wondering what the big deal is.  Then we reach the foot of Mt. St. Helena and he says over the radio "here we go", and sure enough, shortly after we started into our first 10mph curve.  There were a lot more after that.  At many points the front left tire of the bus was on the yellow line and the right rear tire of the trailer was on the white fog line. But I managed to keep it all in my lane, and sort of maintain a reasonable speed.  Most of the time.

We still haven't fixed the stereo on the bus, so when I started getting nervous I started humming to myself. Which eventually became outright singing. And it got louder.  By the time we reached the final turn which was a long horseshoe 10 mph bend I was singing With A Rebel Yell at the top of my lungs.  Stewie glanced over at me from the passenger seat and blinked, unimpressed.

Hello Napa Valley.  You're so beautiful in the Fall.

The view from Skyline Park on the South side of Napa