Southwestern Odyssey

October - November 2016
We are fulfilling a long desire to learn more about wine. Now it’s Napa Valley’s turn. We will also retrace some of our old haunts for our first year of marriage in California.
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  • Day 1

    Waking in Clearlake

    October 7, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 64 °F

    Yesterday we arrived at San Francisco about 11:15 AM, got a rental car, and drove about three hours across the Golden Gate Bridge and up through wine country to get to Nice, California about 5:30 PM. On the way we stopped in Windsor and bought groceries at a Safeway. I bought a $39 bottle of Hartford Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley. Glenda and I had a dinner of bread, cheese, fruit and that beautiful wine. When we arrived at our apartment at Worldmark we went out on the pier and had a wonderful conversation about wine with a young couple from Oregon as we watched a spectacular sunset. Glenda was very tired so we went to bed about 8 PM and slept like logs until this morning. After a long day of flying and driving yesterday, we are greeted by this sunrise at Clearlake, California. Glenda, the not so much morning person, is sipping coffee and trying to wake up. Chuck, the morning person, has cleaned the condo, made coffee, showered, planned our day in wine country and is now on the pier taking photos of the sunrise. Life is beautiful and we are blessed.Read more

  • Day 1

    Wine From the Barrel

    October 7, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Castello di Amorosa is a fantasy castle that resembles in every way an Italian fortress from the 15th century. Although it is new, all of the furnishings are antiques imported from Italy. The vineyards produce some of the finest wines in all of Napa Valley, California. We certainly got our share at a wine tasting today in their beautiful wine cellar.Read more

  • Day 1

    Château Montelena

    October 7, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We became aware of Château Montelena when we watched a movie entitled “Bottle Shock.” The title is a double entendre referring not only to the accidental spoilage of a bottle of wine, but also to an event that occurred in 1976. An English wine merchant, whose shop was in Paris, was convinced that French wines were superior to all others. Nevertheless, needing to boost his business, he traveled to the United States on the outside chance that he might find an American wine that would sell in Paris. He wandered onto the lovely grounds of Château Montelena. That year the château produced a miraculous Chardonnay. He took back to France a bottle of that Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon from a neighboring winery called Stag’s Leap. In a blind taste test performed by France’s leading wine experts, both California wines won over several other French wines. The judges were shocked. In another similar competition held in France eleven years later, the California wines won again. Today we had the opportunity to see where it all started, Château Montelena—the vineyard that put Napa Valley on the winemaking map.Read more

  • Day 2

    Skunk Train

    October 8, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    At the town of Willets we boarded the "Skunk Train," an old collection of railway cars that formerly hauled huge redwood logs out of the forest, and were treated to a pulled pork sandwich at Northspur before returning. The redwood forests are majestically beautiful. The folk singer onboard got a bit hokey for my taste, but still looking at the old railroad cars and the beautiful redwood forest had its merits.Read more

  • Day 2

    Lake County Wine Harvest Festival

    October 8, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    We decided to check out a winery in Kelseyville. I was looking for Steel Winery, and I got an address from my GPS. When we arrived at the location I saw no buildings, only a big open field and some tents. "I must have made a wrong turn," I told Glenda, so I circled back around to make another pass at the address. Only then did I realize that the tents were housing the annual Lake County Wine Harvest Festival. Every wine grower in the region was represented. Amid the dozens of tents we discovered a small building which actually was Steel Winery, so we went inside to see what was going on.

    We were told that for five dollars we would get five glasses of wine of our own choosing. Then we could visit the tents of the vendors to buy pulled pork, fried chicken, barbecued beef, and a whole host of other delicious tapas. Glenda and I adored a Filipino dish called a lumpia, a sort of meat filled eggroll. We had never heard of them. We sampled our five different wines along with some wonderful Mexican and Asian food. There was a new white wine called Roussanne that is between a Chardonnay and a Pinot Grigio. We met several local residents and enjoyed learning about their experiences in the winemaking business. Some of the wine growers told us that the wines of Lake County are every bit as good as those of Napa County to the south, but that Lake County has not been discovered yet. So the wines cost a fraction of the price of those grown just a few miles away. Additionally, California law requires that for a wine to claim a vintage, all of its grapes must be grown on a certain hill, using certain techniques in an identifiable location. The wine growers of Lake County generally do not sell their wines individually, but rather bring them to a central winery where a trained vintner blends them into delicious combinations. I thought they were spectacular.

    Just before we left Glenda wanted me to go back into the field and pick just a few of the cabernet sauvignon grapes for her to taste. I went back, took a photo, picked the grapes and happened upon a delightful high school student who has lived all her life in Kelseyville. She was friendly and charming and engaged me in a conversation. She told me that since she was a child she had worked as an agricultural worker in her father's vineyard. I asked her where she planned to go to college after graduation. "I'll probably stay here," she said. "The grapes are my life." She seemed very intelligent and articulate, and for a moment I felt a bit of regret that someone so personable and talented would not further her education. Then I looked around at the vineyards surrounding us and I said, "That may not be a bad choice."

    Then we headed Vista Point to take some photographs and returned to Worldmark. After relaxing a bit in the room we went outside to enjoy the sunset and then came back to the hooch for bed.
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  • Day 3

    Dead Soldier City

    October 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We left our apartment at WorldMark at about 5 am, and had an interesting drive crossing the ridge of the Sierras on Highway 175 to Hopland. I took a quick shot of a gorgeous sunrise as we were halfway up the mountain. The road was gloriously beautiful as it twisted along the mountain passes, but I became a bit concerned when a few speedsters in sports cars rushed up behind me, wanting to pass on the narrow, curvy road. We stopped along the way at McDonald's for a quick breakfast and soon found ourselves traveling south on the east side of Oakland Bay. I had never seen San Francisco from this side, so again I stopped to take some quick photos.

    Driving further south toward Monterey, what really got my attention was Fort Ord. When I was a young soldier stationed at the Presidio in Monterey, we referred to Fort Ord as "Soldier City." It was larger than most of our home towns. Glenda and I would go to Fort Ord for groceries at the commissary, for medical and dental care, and for most other services the Army provided us. Most of the military materiel arriving or departing from Vietnam came through Fort Ord. One can imagine my shock as we made the turn into the Army base--it was not there. Almost all of the buildings had been razed. Only a chapel, the police station and the hospital remained. The few billets and warehouses still standing lay derelict with weeds around them, and even a few trees growing up through them. But mostly, they were gone. The few patches of concrete parking lots that had not been carried away were hardly visible, infested with weeds. There used to be miles of billets, training areas, warehouses, and munitions facilities. Now they are all gone.

    Few things in my life have ever made me feel so old. The world has changed. This is not the world I knew in 1971. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus is noted for saying, "There is nothing permanent except change." I learned today at an existential level that he was right. Soldier City has changed. It is gone. It is dead.
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  • Day 3

    Honeymoon Apartment

    October 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    Arriving in Monterey about 11 AM, we first went to our first apartment. I had rented it a few weeks before we were married on June 16, 1972, and immediately after our wedding at the Presidio of Monterey Base Chapel, we moved in. I was surprised today to find that we were able to take photos inside. A workman named Joe was refurbishing the apartment in preparation for new renters, and he showed us around. then we took pictures on Franklin Street and in the neighborhood. Troia's grocery store is still there, but it is no longer owned by Mr. Troia. He was a Portuguese gentleman from whom Glenda would buy one-fourth of a pound of ground beef per day so that we could survive on a pre-packaged casserole mix called "Hamburger Helper." Mr. Troia must have known that we were a poor, young Army couple, because I'm sure that he was overly generous in measuring one quarter of a pound. My salary was $288.50 per month, and rent on the apartment was $165 per month. I don't know how we made ends meet. We went down to the Coast Guard Pier and took photos of the sea lions. We had no money for trips or entertainment, so on week ends we would walk down to the pier to sit and watch the sea lions and the sea otters for hours. There are far fewer sea otters here now. Some theories say that the fecal material of cats washed into Monterey Bay in the sewage, and that a virus has killed the sea otters. Whether this is so, I can't say. I only hope that they will return.

    We got a pizza from Gianni's brought it back to the room at the Colton Inn next door to the library, and finished the Hartford Pinot Noir. While we were eating our pizza we watched on television the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
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  • Day 3

    At the Colton Inn

    October 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    We chose to stay at the Colton Inn just next door to the Public Library in Monterey. This motel is neither the newest, nor the finest inn in the city, but we chose it for its location. It is not far from our old apartment, and it allowed me access to the library. With little money during our first year together, we would often go to the library to read or peruse the newspapers. We did not have the resources to subscribe to a newspaper, and we could not afford a television. I remember following the publication of the New York Times articles by Daniel Berrigan. Later on, those articles were published in a book called "The Pentagon Papers," showing the duplicity of the U. S. government in selling a war in Southeast Asia that the Army was training me to fight. I remember reading about Richard Nixon as the Watergate accusations emerged. I remember folding up a newspaper, walking over to Glenda in the library and whispering, "The President of the United States is a criminal."

    We wandered around downtown and found some of the old buildings we love. We used to dream about one day having a home of our own, even nicer than the huge old Spanish mansions we saw on Alvarado Street, on Calle Principal and on Fremont Street. Now those houses don't appear so large or so grand, but, of course now we have our own lovely home. But these memories are indeed precious.
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  • Day 3

    Lovers' Point

    October 9, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F

    We drove out to Pacific Grove to retrace some of our old haunts. Poverty kept us very close to home when we were first married, but if you are on the Monterey Peninsula, then such a restriction can be a blessing. I learned that Pacific Grove was begun as a Methodist beachside retreat center in the early days of the last century. Now property values have skyrocketed. I found on the internet a small house on Franklin Street. I remember passing it as I walked to the Presidio each day for classes in Chinese-Mandarin. That little one-bedroom bungalow just sold for 1.4 million dollars. Pacific Grove is still beautiful. We spent some time eating our picnic lunch at Lovers' Point, and I was surprised to find a little makeshift monument to the folk singer John Denver, who died when his airplane crashed in Monterey Bay several years ago.Read more

  • Day 4

    Downtown Monterey

    October 10, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    We began the morning in the hotel office for a continental breakfast. I met our innkeepers Ellen and Lauren. Glenda and I had a continental breakfast in our room and set out on a walking tour of downtown Monterey. We idled past some of the stores. Glenda was especially interested in seeing a little photography store where on our last visit here she purchased our very first digital camera. I found a Walgreen's pharmacy that, I think, occupies the building formerly housing the J. C. Penny Store. I remember in 1972 I arrived at the Presidio with only my government issue clothing in a dufflebag. I had been told not to take any civilian clothing. However, when I had to wear my fatigue uniform all weekend long, several guys asked me if I had been given extra duty for some infraction. On a Sunday morning at around 6 AM I left the Presidio to wander downtown (still wearing my fatigues) just to get my geographical bearings. I found the J. C. Penny Store and decided that as soon as I got off work on Monday I would come down and buy some civilian clothing. After work on Monday I walked back downtown and purchased one pair of blue jeans and a white sport shirt with a little black pattern printed on it. I kept those clothes for years until the fabric literally wore out. I remember on that first weekend morning passing the San Carlos Hotel, now a refurbished Marriott. It looked massive in the predawn silence on that Sunday morning. I photographed the Wells-Fargo bank we used for our small checking account. On a previous visit I had photographed its interior, but today the bank officials denied me permission. What is remarkable to me now is that the memories of those events that happened so long ago seem so recent. It is as though no time has passed. Monterey still seems like home.Read more