Dear Friends,
Zing went to the gym, I went to drawing class, and then we both went to Lodi.
Look it up and you find the Credence Clearwater Revival song with the refrain:
"Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again"
Mention that you went to Lodi and your friend Mary Kaye says, “Well, I guess you won’t be going back!”
You get it — Lodi is not one of the gleaming California towns where everyone longs to live. It’s not even in Silicone Valley. It is about a half-hour through flatland southeast of Sacramento. You’ve heard of Stockton… well, it’s almost to Stockton. Lodi was the perfect place for me and Zing to start our explorations beyond the city limits -- an unassuming place with easy traffic patterns, a train that runs through, a growing wine industry, and even an Asparagus Festival. The downtown is a clean handful of shops and restaurants, with a picturesque post office and some of the most polite and friendly people I ever encountered.
One must have been Eric Donaldson of LVVI Lodi Sparkling Wine. We didn’t get his name. Zing and I were walking past an alley next to a wine-tasting place, and I saw a young man hoisting a box from his pickup. Something he was wearing (cap? shirt? I forget!) said Miami University. So I said “Ohio?” and he lit up. Most people, of course, think only of Miami, Florida, not that state university in Oxford, Ohio. We chatted about Cincinnati and bridges over the Ohio River and honeysuckle and Skyline Chili. He said he started LVVI winery and was making a wine delivery. I should have asked to buy a bottle right then. I would love to buy wine from the back of a truck in an alley in Lodi. But I didn’t think of it, so now I’ve got the first name on my list of wineries to visit.
Love,
k
No comments:
Post a Comment