Shoes, Windmills, Bulls and Mountains
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2009
1
4
11
Trip End
Jun 21, 2009
Mariposa, California
Sunday, June 14, 2009
So we load up all our treasures and hit the road but before we can even get out of Sebastopol, we spot a flea market and feel compelled to stop, because you never know... Well it was here that we made a strange revelation that Californian's are obsessed with shoes. We had noticed in other stops along the way people selling shoes, new, used, strange kinky boots but it was cemented in our minds when nearly every single booth of this 50-75 booth flea market had at least one pair of shoes. I guess this is recycling at the next level.
We drive due east through Fairfield and Stockton past beautiful groves of apple trees, cherry trees, olive trees, and almond trees. Lots of alfalfa fields, sorghum, rice paddies too. This area is very flat after being in wine country so it was an easy drive. I didn't realize that the Bay from the ocean came all the way up here. We passed marshes and bays full of boats and for the first time finally saw someone fishing. I had commented several times as we passed bodies of water that no one was boating or fishing and thought it strange.
Then we reach the plains and see more cows, lots of happy California cows, hay fields, some sort of grain and in Vacaville spot this huge, I mean like 1000's of acres, windmill farms. My picture doesn't do it justice though I shot several of them. They tower 50 feet up with these giant arms slowly spinning in the wind. What was funny is when I got out of the car to take the pix, the wind was extremely strong but the windmills were just leisurely spinning away. It was awesome to see how they had incorporated power production with agriculture as the hayfields were planted all around the towers for as far as the eye could see.
By now we are thirsty, it is 11am and we make our first beer stop in Lodi, CA at the Lodi Beer Company. A charming early 1900 century building that has been gutted with the tin ceiling and walls all that remain of the original structure, but they did a fantastic job of decorating with lots of wood, iron, and tile to make it feel like an old but comfortable place. We pull up to the bar and order a sampler to share. They offer 7 beers for $7.50 (Lite, Hef, Red, IPA, Doppelbock, Porter and Framboise. They were all very good, I especially like the Doppelbock for its malty, sweet thickness and the Framboise which was tart and yet not overpowered with raspberry flavors.
We keep heading south, traffic is not too bad considering we are back in the more populated areas and drive the freeway just to make up some time. We stop in Manteca as we had decided to do lunch 'out' today and dinner 'in' as I had read about Kelley Bros Brewery on their website and learned they are known for their tri-tip as much as their beers. They have these huge Chinese brick oven smokers and smoke turkey, pork, tri-tip and ribs. We decide to split a combo and I am so glad we did, there is no way we could have eaten a single serving each. We are still testing garlic fries so we upgraded that with some slaw. They were nice enough to split the plates for us so the picture you see is one half a serving. The meat was fork tender and full of smoke flavor. It came with three sauces, but I didn't even want them as the meat was so delicious on its own. They only had a few beers on tap at the time, so we each ordered an IPA to have with our lunch. It had a nice hoppy flavor without too much bite and was perfect with the smoked pork and tri-tip. Manteca did their best to honor Flag Day as up and down nearly every street were 5 foot high American Flags about every 10 feet down the sidewalks. My grand daughter Ali would have gone nuts as she is obsessed with spotting flags.
We continue on south to Merced and pop into Big Bubba's BBQ which is the home of Rascal Creek Brewing. This is a really cool place. Lots of interesting decor like a huge artificial sequoia (though we thought it looked more like an oak) built into the bar, all kinds of fun pictures and seating options, and even a bull to ride. We tried to talk each other into it but hadn't had enough beer yet though in my case, it might take vodka to get me on a bull. But we didn't have to fear a Mom informed us it was her daughters 16th surprise birthday party and we watched Mom, birthday girl, and big sister ride the thing much to our amusement. They offer a six beer sampler, very generous sized I might add, which we split for $8.99 appropriately named the "Six Shooter". We again were drawn to the IPA but they also had an excellent brown ale though it's head was lacking. It was mildly roasting and smooth.
We pop into a drug store to buy mosquito repellant as someone had warned us that they will pick you up and carry you away if you are not protected. Hmmm. I also wonder about the picnic stuff in our car as bears are supposed to be able to smell it a mile away. Hopefully we won't have another story to tell.
We leave the plains and head over to Mariposa which is located in a holler outside of Yosemite. It is nice to be back in the trees and hills. I can see flat every day back home. We check into our hotel and take a quick stroll around town until our knees give out, it is up and down from one block to the next.
We decided we are really not hungry yet so we drive over to Mariposa Brewing Company about 8 miles away next to the Fairgrounds. It is about six months old but they have a really nice set up. Mostly their business is restaurants ang growlers to go but Steve Lach has a good business ethic and seems to be doing right things,,well except for customer service. Those who know me know I can not stand poor customer service after making my living at customer service for over 30 years. On three occasions he asked me a question and then turned away while I was in mid-sentence to speak to his assistant. You will be shocked to know I didn't call him on it as I am known to do. They offer samples at $1 each and had Hef, Amber, IPA and another which I can't remember at the moment as I was having an internal meltdown at his rudeness. They were okay not as good as what we had tasted at other places but I will say the Hef was outstanding, crisp and refreshing.
We head back to the hotel and hang out by the pool so Marshall can enjoy his cigar and just relax. It is 80 degrees but there is no humidity so it was totally enjoyable. Tomorrow, bright and early we head to Yosemite.
