The Robertson and Sokoloff Road Trip – Grapevine – Day One

Submitted: 24th June 2026

The Robertson and Sokoloff Road Trip – Grapevine

This is such a unique Authors on Location – an insight into the first day of the actual roadtrip that the authors of Grapevine are doing – following the locations mentioned in the novel. Could this BE anymore booktrail perfect?

Day one (c) The BookTrail

Here we go then….. Craig and Alex….over to you happy campers…

The Grapevine book locations

Craig and Alex at the start of their journey (c) Robertson and Sokoloff

The Grapevine book locations

Our crazy, reckless tour from SoCal to NoCal, from Los Angeles to San Francisco began in a parking lot 15 minutes from the airport. That was where we were to be united with our companion for the week, a 26-feet Class C motorhome.

The Grapevine Craig Robertson and Alexandra Sokoloff

The Grapevine book locations

It was big. Like too big too drive and not big enough to live in. But we were going to have to do both whether we liked it or not.

Avila (c) Robertson and Sokoloff

The Grapevine book locations

The staff member at Roadsurfers ran through a host of instructions on filling up with water, hooking up to shore power, using the generator, how not to drain the battery and a host of other things that I didn’t listen to but nodded at what was hopefully the appropriate times. All I could think of was steering 5 tonnes of metal on the wrong side of the road.

RVs (c) Robertson and Sokoloff

Taking a deep breath (a phrase I really have to learn to use less often when writing), I edged the RV into the LA traffic and hoped for the best. Or, at the very least, not the worst.

“All I could think of was steering 5 tonnes of metal on the wrong side of the road.”

The Grapevine book locations

I was immediately aware of taking up the entire lane with the width of the rig, leaving little room for manoeuvre or error. However the lane wasn’t going to get any wider and the RV wasn’t going to get any smaller, so all I could was keep the thing between the lines.

The Grapevine book locations

First stop was Pages in Manhattan Beach, just 15 minutes from the airport and a nice, easy test run for what lay ahead. That was the plan. Manhattan’s narrow streets and even narrower parking bays proved to be a nightmare. Sorry, Pages: A Bookstore, maybe next time. It wasn’t you, it was us.

Instead, we got on the 405 north, the busiest highway in California (and therefore quite possibly the world) and headed, painstakingly slowly towards Santa Clarita. The slow pace might have been a bonus but for everyone else’s impatience and cars diving into the lane wasn’t what I needed. Let’s just say some people were treated to a few Scottish phrases they hadn’t heard before.

“Let’s just say some people were treated to a few Scottish phrases they hadn’t heard before.”

Santa Clarita

The Grapevine book locations

The Barnes and Noble of Santa Clarita…

The Grapevine book locations

In Santa Clarita, we achieved a bookstore visit by taking up two spaces in the parking lot. The store manager was happy to see us and we left them a copy of The Grapevine to encourage them to spread the word. Suitably encouraged we pressed on north to Castaic Lake which plays a prominent role in the book, falling into the category of I Could Tell You But I’d Have To Kill You.

The Grapevine book locations

Grapevine

Next stop, the Grapevine. The 40-mile stretch of undulating hills and killer turns that give our book its name. We’d driven this road many times, but this one was very different.

Partly because of its relation to the novel, but mainly because we drove it in a freaking RV. The traffic was ridiculously bad, the ear-popping climbs and the dizzying dips were hard work, and we got nowhere fast. On a clear day, the heart of Grapevine to LA might take an hour and a half – this time it took five long hours. The first thing you’re supposed to do when you arrive at a campsite is to hook up to water and electricity. The first thing I did was crack open a beer.

Sunset (c) Robertson and Sokoloff

It had been a very long and tiring day, seven hours in all since we hit the road, but the pain of that was eased by a stunning desert sunset, the sound of crickets, the appearance of a dazzling metor scorching through the night sky, and a second beer.

Good night all! Safe onward travels and looking forward to the next part of the trail!