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These bottles are ready for tasting at a winery in Napa. Just below the large bottles are small plates of food, really delicious food, ready for pairing with excellent wines.

Wine humor.

Now back to the question…Why do YOU travel? I am writing an ebook on different reasons people travel, what their mindset is concerning travel, what expectations they have or don’t have about a trip or about travel, how much planning they do, different psychologies of travel (I’m not asking you to lie down on the couch and then charge you by the session)…

You get the picture. If you have any insights, email me at wvanhatten@travelsandescapes.com with your ideas, reasons, or ramblings about why YOU travel. You will get credit in the ebook and a free copy. Ya can’t beat that…

Tulip trees are in full bloom in Napa Valley…and it’s only February. How nice.

Flowers are everywhere at the wineries. Hard to believe it’s only February.

Somebody is still looking for his Valentine.

rain drops on ornamental kale

fountains and lily pads

And these are what?

Decorative cabbage at Sterling Winery in Napa

Along the walkways at Sterling Winery in Napa

Girard Winery tasting room in Yountville

Ever wonder how to calculate a time zone? Is Pacific time ahead or behind East Coast time? How about Singapore? Is it day or night there? Take a look at http://www.time.gov/. You can pick an area of the US or check the world. It’s pretty handy.

Spill wine on your carpet and you try…really try…to get it out.
On the other hand some people use wine to stain things on purpose. Take Ryan Hill of the Hill Family Estate, for example. Located in Yountville, California, this winery is one of over 400 wineries in the Napa Valley.
How do you make your winery different…march to a different drum…or guitar? You team up with Fender Guitars and stain some wood for them. And you use wine. Red wine. In fact Ryan and winemaker Doran used a special blend of red grapes to stain the wood samples. Fender produced 100 “Hill Harvest Red” stained limited edition 60th Anniversary Stratocasater Guitars.
This is one of them. And it is beautiful.

Dirty laundry happens.
You can put it in a separate bag so it won’t smell up your clean clothes. If you don’t have a bag just for dirty laundry, put it in a separate laundry bag inside your suitcase. Then toss in a small unwrapped bar of soap from the hotel (2 if necessary). They won’t hurt or stain your clothes and they certainly help with the smell. And you will be able to find them when you get home.

If you aren’t staying at hotels, pack a couple of dryer sheets in your laundry bag before you leave home. They will help keep the odor at bay. Just remove before you do your laundry.

Dryer sheets come in handy if you are going to do laundry at a hotel or laundromat. Typically the water is fairly hard. The dryer sheets will help with static and help soften your clothes in the dryer.

Many rental car agencies are upgrading to the latest GPS technology. Budget Travel rated several and this is what they found.

Enterprise rents the Garmin nuvi 265W for $10 a day.

Hertz uses their own brand for $13 a day. This one is fixed below the dashboard so be careful when parking as it cannot be removed and placed out of sight.

Avis/Budget has the Garmin nuvi 780 for $14 a day. Budget Travel really likes this one as it is a newer model and will even give you real time traffic updates.

Dollar/Thrifty rents the Garmin nA1/4vi 660 for $12 a day.

Alamo/National has the Garmin StreetPilot c330 for $12 a day.

Each have pros and cons so do some checking if having a GPS is the reason you are renting from a particular company. Happy navigating.