Chaos Attraction

Solo to Winters

2012-08-24, 9:59 a.m.

I've only been to Winters a couple of times, both times to go to their infamously good restaurants The Buckhorn and Putah Creek Cafe. And obviously both times I went, someone else was hauling my butt. Well, for this week's driving practice, I found out that they were having an Earthquake Fest. I saw the magic words "craft vendors" and thought, "Hey, I can give it a shot for a few hours."

The super nice thing about driving to Winters is that you don't have to go on the freeway to get there. It's totally doable by hitting long mostly empty country roads. I wish all drives to other towns could be that easy. It was beautiful. Well, as long as you don't mix up where to turn off, anyway, which I fortunately did not. I was using my GPS on my phone just in case, and discovered that I apparently do not get phone reception in the entire town of Winters...and well, half of the way there to Winters. Oddly enough, the navigation program still managed to keep working even though the phone was constantly complaining that I needed to use the data roaming.

The festival was pretty small--it blocks off a couple of blocks of Main Street. I had found out the day before that Winters has a yarn shop, and I was trying to get there before they closed at 6. Alas, they decided to close at 3 p.m. that day. Really? There's going to be a dang festival going on with all kinds of traffic and people, and you CLOSED? This does not strike me as a good business decision! Same kind of goes for the quilting store across the street. But I am happy to note that the ceramics store, a jewelry store, a quinceanera store, and a guitar store stayed open for the festival. (And seriously, quinceanera stores are awesome. Man, why can't white people have quinceaneras? I would have loved that.) I bought a crocheted flower ring done VERY well at the jewelry store. And I hung out in the guitar store for awhile--the guy makes them himself and offers classes in how to make them. I asked how long it took and he said about six months and costs $700 for the supplies. His wife gave me guitar picks :) As for the booths, there weren't a whole lot, but I did have some fun at a hippie booth. I did like that lady.

I think come the fall, I need to book a car trip to Winters on a weekday or weekend afternoon--i.e. when all the stores are actually open.


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