Yay America! From Mendocino to Healdsburg…

Bikes to Rwanda/Barista Magazine Road Trip Days #2 and #3: Excuse me for not blogging yesterday but there’s barely cell service in Mendocino/Fort Bragg, much less Internet, but the views make it more than worth it…

And since you can’t see us, this is the way we’re rollin’:

On the way to Mendocino, we couldn’t resist stopping at the Drive Thru Tree in Leggitt, California. Here we are with the bike in the tree (yes IN the tree):

So to begin at the beginning, we got up at the crack of dawn (i.e. 9ish) and scooted out of Eureka bound for Fort Bragg and Mendocino to hook up with our pals at Thanksgiving Coffee. Fourth of July is a big deal in Mendocino, and we were advised to take a look for ourselves at the sights of the town celebration. Here are my two favorite images:

and here’s the hippie pig I wanted to adopt:

On to coffee: after strolling the town for a bit, our wonderful host, Sarah Bodnar of Thanksgiving, took us out the the Thanksgiving operation, where Mr. Paul Katzeff gave us an extensive guided tour of the place. The very first thing he showed us was “my pride and joy” — and he didn’t mean the coffee. He meant these little babies:

These are his earthworms! And here is Thanksgiving’s organic garden!

Yes, it truly is a magical place. We tore ourselves away to head into the roastery, seeing this along the way:

Thanksgiving was doing biodiesel way before it was just a cool thing to do. In fact, it’s easy to see the sustainability of this company from the permanence of the systems that have been in place for a long time. Our little tour ended in the cupping room — we stopped in the break room first though, and Paul poured us some pretty damn good cappuccinos with latte art and everything!

We were abut to hit it for a yummy Mendocino seafood dinner, but first, we had to get a shot of Paul sitting on the little wooden bike:

We went to bed with bellies full of oysters and good local beer, and had a great night’s sleep at the generous Ben and Brendan’s house in Caspar. And no kidding, there was an outdoor shower I enjoyed on the deck with a full on view of the ocean this morning upon rising.

So first on the agenda was a gathering at Mendocino Bakery, which is owned by the Katzeffs.

Clara gave a little talk about Bikes to Rwanda and got a terrific response.

We bid the Katzeffs and Sarah a fond farewell and hot the road for Healdsburg, where we met up with Issac Gonzalez from Flying Goat Coffee, which was great!

After a great lunch and some lively conversation about the coffee industry and Bikes to Rwanda, Issac took us down to one of Flying Goats’ cafes where we enjoyed some yummy iced coffee before hitting the road.

We just got to Napa here we are chillin by the Napa River with Eileen from Ritual and her pals. It’s delightful. We’ll stay here tonight and then attend Ritual’s Napa location’s grand opening event tomorrow. Should be great! Getting homesick as I always do, but the trip’s been for sure worthwhile. Check in again tomorrow to see how the night played out!