Thom & Carol's Adventures: Stuck In Lodi

This week we travelled to the California Delta in near Isleton and Rio Vista, CA. We stayed at park named the Lighthouse Marina and Resort. It’s not what I would call a luxury resort, but by delta standards, it was above average. When we return to the area, we will probably not use this area as our base camp.

We learned another lesson (Number 4) on RV’ing learned about site selection. Before selecting and settling in the site, check your sewer connection and remember Roofer’s Rule #1 …. Water runs downhill! It was a challenge to empty the tanks, but fortunately, no environmental spills occurred during the exercise and we will not have to surrender to the EPA for sentencing.

Day trips for the week included Sacramento, California, Lodi and cruising along the river road toward Sacramento and looping back to base camp.

Prior to this visit, our only purpose to go to Sacramento was to attend court hearings and trials. After this visit, credibility was added to the old saying that “work interferes with your personal life.” We visited Sutter’s Fort, The Capitol, Old Town Sacramento and the Sacramento history museum.

Sutter’s Fort is located south of the capitol and is the original settlement site of the town. Sutter was an immigrant from Switzerland who arrived in Sacramento around 1839. His idea was to make the fort a central location for industry and agriculture in California. Sacramento was the perfect location. He recruited craftsmen for the industry side who resided near and worked at the fort. The agriculture side was a no brainer if you’ve been through central California. With the discovery of gold in 1849, and with Sutter’s fort as the foundation for trade in the area, development of the city along the Sacramento River cemented the location to become the state’s capitol.

The Capitol and mall area are beautiful. The Capitol building was larger, more ostentatious and historically maintained than Nevada. The first floor was restored as a museum with official offices reproduced at the turn of the century. Cool! The upper floors were the working chambers and gallery. While we were there, the assembly chamber was being used by the Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project. They were conducting a mock session of a bill being presented and passed. Impressive and encouraging to see that some of our youth is active and concerned about the future of the country.

Old Town was fun and the museum was very informative. We stopped and had an appetizer and maybe a couple of beers on the Delta Queen, a restored riverboat turned into a hotel. By the way, Carol has taken over the title of “professional” when it comes to beer drinking in our family. She can put down a Corona faster than I can even finish half of my NA cerveza. Of course, the logic (true, I might add) is that they’re best when cold.

The river run drive was instructive. Sometimes, we felt like we were in Blue Bayou country with boats and homes in total disrepair. Other times, we felt like we were in Huntington Harbor with custom cabin cruisers and upscale homes. In some places along the delta and river, if a ship sunk or a trailer fell into the river, the salvage was just left there. One gets a feeling of what living in New Orleans would be like. Most building is below river and levee level. It’s a bit scary wondering if the levee will hold. Oh well, it’s been like that forever, so I guess it’s OK. Some towns, like Isleton are, for all practical purposes, abandoned. My photo of Rogelio’s below is the best place in Isleton. Everything else is abandoned or barely hanging on, usually local restaurants that continue to have a following.

Lodi…. What can I say? Actually, a lot! We were surprised to find a community in redevelopment with pride of their history. The old Creedence Clearwater song that had the phrase “stuck in Lodi” may not be such a bad thing. Old town has some unique shops and restaurants and they are restoring the train station. The farmer’s markets in and around the city brought back some old memories of Upland and Ontario “way back when”. At one of our stops at the roadside stand, we picked up a fresh peach/boysenberry pie. To die for! Corn, fresh berries and salad fixins’…. yum yum.

Well, we’re off to Benbow, in the heart of the Redwoods for our next leg. Hope we didn’t bore you with this week’s adventure. Hope all is well with you!

T & C