The Loose Cannon - Daytripping on the #10 bus: A $2 adventure from Yountville to Calistoga and beyond

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When I was in grade school, I rode the bus to and from school. We lived in a small house on the Mt. Eden Ranch (Current PlumpJack and Rudd properties). We would walk the one-third of a mile (thank you Google Maps) to get to the Oakville Cross Road where the bus would pick us up and drop us off. If the weather wasn’t great, our mom might deliver us or pick us up to and from the bus in this classic beauty parked in front of our home next to the well-used clothes line:

No clothes dryer back then, but my poor mom never gave up on trying to keep my dad and the four of us boys in clean clothes.

Riding the bus, I remember when Joe Escareno stood up to the bully Billy Walker, and I remember seeing the “F” word scratched on the back of most of the seats. I didn’t know what it meant, but somebody was very intent on sharing that word.

Now, when Lin and I take our daily walks through Yountville, we almost always see a #10 Vine bus passing through town, traveling either north or south. On a whim, we decided to go exploring on the #10 Vine bus.

Calistoga is an awesome little town with a wide variety of shops and restaurants. We took the #10 bus to Calistoga for lunch and window shopping one day. We caught the bus right on Washington Street by Westamerica Bank, and as seniors we rode it to Calistoga for $1 each. (Non-seniors pay $2.)

The first buses pass through Yountville at about 6 a.m., and then about hourly and often even more frequently, until almost 8 p.m. The trip from Yountville to Calistoga takes about 45 minutes. You could go to Calistoga for a casual dinner and still catch a bus back to Yountville until 8 p.m.

Click here to look at the #10 bus schedule: Route 10 – The Vine

This is what you will see:

When planning a trip, be sure to select the tabs for the right day and the right direction. The schedule doesn’t show the time for every pick-up point, but you can estimate the time by finding another location near your preferred pick-up point.

And make sure you have $1 bills to feed the toll box, if you are not purchasing tickets in advance.

Round trip to Calistoga for both of us was just $4, less than a gallon of gas!

We thought that was pretty smart. But, on the ride home, we met a Vet’s Home resident who took the #10 to Calistoga, and then got a transfer ticket to ride a separate bus to the Twin Pine Casino. So, he boarded the bus at the Vet’s Home in the morning, rode the buses to the casino, gambled a bit, had lunch and returned home on the bus for $2 round trip. Consider that mini-adventure some day when you are bored.

The buses are clean and you can enjoy the scenery better when not driving. A bonus is that you ride several feet higher than in your car, which allows views not otherwise visible. I noticed many things that I couldn’t have seen from a car.

For a day trip to Twin Pine Casino from Yountville, I found the schedule a bit more confusing. (Send me your email address and I’ll send you detailed instructions if interested.)

Here is an example of how a round trip from Yountville to Calistoga to Twin Pine Casino could work:

Board the #10 northbound in Yountville at about 8 a.m. and arrive in Calistoga about 8:45 a.m. (and remember to get that transfer ticket).

You’ll have about an hour to roam or maybe eat breakfast in Calistoga before boarding the #3 bus at the Lincoln Avenue bridge at 9:50 a.m. to arrive at the Twin Pine Casino at 10:20 a.m.

You’ll have about three hours at the casino before boarding the #3 bus at 1:20 p.m. to get back to Calistoga around 1:50 p.m. (and remember to get a transfer ticket).

Then board the #10 southbound at 2:10 p.m. to get home to Yountville before 3 p.m.

That’s an eventful seven-hour day trip that only costs seniors $2 in bus fares.

Here is the link to the casino: Twin Pine

Here is the link to the casino dining page: Dining – Twin Pine

You could even pack an overnight bag and attend a show there.

I wrote the above several weeks ago, but recently decided that I owed it to my readers to make that trip to describe it. I didn’t have the time to spend seven hours on the trip, so I came up with this early morning schedule that only had a 22-minute layover at the casino.

When we got to Calistoga, the #3 bus was already there. In no time, we were headed over Mt. St. Helena to Middletown. Our driver Cindy was amazing! She handled that twisty, turny mountain road easily. When I said she was driving faster than I could in my car, she modestly replied that she had been doing it for years.

WARNING: You will get tossed around a bit, so if you get car sick, prepare for this wild ride.

We arrived at the casino right on schedule.

Make no mistake about it – it’s NOT Vegas! It’s a small casino owned and operated by the Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California. It offers “over 500 slot machines, table games and lodging.”

At that early hour, nobody was gambling. I wandered around the small casino for maybe 10 minutes before the security guard informed me that backpacks were not allowed on the gaming floor.

About those fares: as a senior, it cost me $1 to get from Yountville to Calistoga and the driver gave me a transfer to ride the bus to Middletown. Returning from Middletown, the fare would be $5, unless you tapped your debit card for payment of only $1. Go figure. And that $1 also got me a transfer ticket to the #10 back to Yountville when we got back to Calistoga.

I mentioned to driver Joe about meeting the Vet’s Home resident who traveled to the casino, and he said “That would be Richard. He’s a regular. I’ll probably see him tomorrow.”

The trip back over Mt. St. Helena was somewhat eventful. We got stuck behind a big rig that could not stay on his side of the yellow lines:

And I just happened to be filming when the traffic came to a complete stop in both directions because of that. As he approached a right-hand turn, he knew he would have to travel over the yellow lines just to navigate that one very tight corner. But there was a lot of traffic in the opposite direction. So, he stopped and luckily for him, a truck traveling the opposite direction stopped to help him get around that corner. Watch this video to the end to hear driver Joe tell the story of following another big rig down the mountain, not so successfully:

After a brief layover in Calistoga, I took the #10 bus south to Yountville, completing the trip in just over three hours.

Here are some notes on traveling by bus:

There are no bathrooms on the bus.
The buses were never more than one-third full, so lots of empty space.
The buses were always right on schedule.
The buses frequently pass within a few inches (no kidding) of signs and tree branches. Don’t let it bother you.
While it is not mandatory, I suggest using your seatbelts when traveling over Mt. St. Helena.

I haven’t even touched on taking the bus to Napa. Nancy, my friend from the Vet’s Home, takes the bus to Napa regularly to have lunch at In-And-Out Burgers and shop at Raley’s.

Nancy has kids and friends she could call on, but Nancy loves her independent lifestyle and the #10 bus allows her that. She gets around just fine. She has a golf cart and no need for a car. At 95 years young, she is an inspiration to all of us!

Ranndy Piña
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