LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR

We slowly transitioned back to civilization after our adventure at the lavender farm. For those of you following along, we drove south on I-5 and then took a state highway to Vacaville. On our way to Vacaville, we drove through a stretch of country which was completely surreal. The gently rolling hills were covered with the greenest grass we’ve ever seen and populated with the blackest black cows grazing here and there. It seemed like a post card or a screenshot straight off of the old Microsoft lock screen. It was beautiful, but since we were driving, we couldn’t get a photo. It was so pleasant after our troubles at the lavender farm. We arrived in Vacaville to a real park made for our home.

We toured downtown Vacaville. It has a nice Spanish feel to it. The weather was beautiful - sunny, mild temperatures, soft breezes … wow! We have to tell you that this is such a wonderful feeling after several months of rain, cold temperatures, and overcast skies. We drove to Lagoon Park and hiked Tower Trail to the top of the hill. It was a challenging hike. Both of us did a lot of huffing and puffing.

One day we drove to Fairfield. What’s there? How about the world famous JellyBelly corporate office and jellybean factory? It was pretty impressive to look over a factory floor the size of a couple of football fields and see jellybeans from wall to wall.

After a few days of laying in the sun, we packed up and traveled to Lodi. You know Lodi, the title of the song Creedence Clearwater Revival sang. Incidentally, Lodi was the B side to Bad Moon Rising. That’s a pretty solid 45 record. Betty and I listened to a lot of CCR early in our lives. The music is good, but the band members had their troubles . You can read the story if you’re interested. The song Lookin’ Out My Back Door was on the record called Cosmo’s Factory, which was the first CCR album I bought. I think my favorite CCR song is “I Put a Spell On You,” even though it was written by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who was not a member of CCR, but had an incredible nickname.

Lodi was really nice. It’s about 30 miles or so south of Sacramento. By the way, Sacramento claims to be the “farm to fork capital of the world.” Meh. I think a lot of places try to get a label to attract tourists. For instance, Atlanta, our old hometown, uses the phrase “the city too busy to hate.” Yeah, right. Have you read any recent headlines out of Atlanta?

Anyway, we enjoyed Lodi. It has a nice section of historic homes. The downtown is very walkable with a lot of eucalyptus trees. We explored some businesses and stopped for lunch at the Dancing Fox Winery and Brewery. According the web machine, the Dancing Fox is a family run place where Mom is the Baker, Dad is the winemaker, Sons are the Brewmaster, manager and chef. All breads are stone milled on site using organic grains and soups made from scratch. Wines are certified sustainable from estate grown grapes. Brews vary from light to dark stouts. This won’t surprise you - Betty tried the stout.

We stayed in a really nice park. There were a lot of our cousins roaming the park. Not only did they keep the rodent population in check, they seemed to be a lot more friendly the Betty and I are. I don’t get that. What’s wrong with them?

We met a cool couple from Ontario, Canada. Diane and Danny’s primary language is French but we were able to coax them to speak English so we could compare notes on our travels. Fun stuff. We also visited Stama Winery where the folks were having a gathering of the local Corvette club. Lots of nice machines to admire. Before we left, we visited the Michael David Winery because Buster likes their wines. It was a fun visit and we tasted some of their more high-end wines.

Until next time, happy trails,

Betty and Buster

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