To Stockton and the Wedding

9/25/2008 To Stockton
We are headed to Stockton, CA today, a day earlier then planned because of the amount of time it will take us to drive there. We are suppose to be at the rehearsal diner around 6:00PM and Carmen does not want to drive all day then go to the diner. So today we are on the road to Stockton.
On the way we are using routes 18, 395, 85 and 99. Route 395 is fairly straight with many "whoopee" hills along the way. Many of these hills are one after the other. When we turn west on 85 we are driving by another very large solar panel farm. The site we drive by is about three-quarters of a mile wide. Like I said huge. Not sure how many megawatts this facility generates but it must be considerable.

As we drive along 85, the scenery is very impressive. On the left after the solar panel farm, is Edwards Air Force base. I kept looking for UFOs but never see any. As a mater of fact, we see nothing flying at all. Ah well, I guess I'll have to go back to the Area 51 area or Roswell.

As we drive along 85 near the town of Mojave as we start up the mountain pass we go by a very large wind farm. They have windmills on both sides of the road moving up and along the tops of the hills and then back down on the other side. A number of them are rotating as we go by. As with the earlier solar panels not sure how much energy these generate, but they certainly help to reduce the use of oil.

The road to the top of the pass is about 8 miles long and tops at over 4000 feet and goes by Techachapi. The hills around here are very pretty and Carmen is taking pictures.

We come to an area where it appears they are mining some sort of mineral that is rather white. Not until we see a sign indicating that "Twenty Mule Team Road" was coming up. Sure enough this must be borax and a sign later confirms this. Wow I use to watch the borax westerns on TV. Can you believe it?

As we near Bakersfield we begin to see grape vines and other crops. In Bakersfield we picked up route 99 and head north.

All along 99 north to Stockton, both sides of the road become flat and you can see for miles and more miles. There are farms which have hundreds of cows. We cannot tell if the cows are for milking or beef. Also, there are many miles of grape vines. We also see corn, orange trees, nut trees, peach trees, strawberries, tomatoes, and more which we can not tell what the crop is.

We get to Stockton and check in and after driving for about 6+ hours we decide to stay in and rest.


9/26/2008 Stockton and Lodi Wine
We meet with my sister and her husband (Helen and Charlie) early in the morning and although we are invited to a barbecue at the bride's family's house, we decide to go with Helen and Charlie to Lodi. Lodi is a wine producing area. Mmmmm, hic!

We head out to Lodi and when we get there we stop at the visitor center. They have wine tasting there, but we get a map of the wineries and the gentleman behind the tasting counter mark a number of wineries that has tastings on the map. Off we go.

We stopped at four wineries during the day. One has a restaurant and also sells fruits and some baked goods. We stopped and had lunch. I needed it after the first couple of tastings. Five to eight shots of wine at each winery. Each of course tasting costs $5.00, but if you buy any wine the tasting cost is waved. We buy bottles at each of the wineries.

A couple of the wineries had ongoing wine making at the time we visited and were allowed to go and see what was going on. At the first winery, they have just pressed some grapes. We ask the guy working there how it is processed and he says he'll show us. He gets the forklift, picks up a large square container full of grapes and dumps it into the presser which spits out the stems and squeezes the grapes. Afterwards, he gets a step ladder so we can see into the machines and see how the process works and what really happens in the de-stemer. It was very interesting. Then after all that he takes a plastic glass and pours out some of the freshly squeezed juice and we all get to taste it, man was that great stuff.

At another winery, after tasting a couple of the wines, we are invited to go back and see the process some of the men are doing at the moment. When we get there, they are filling a number of wine barrels. One of the men is putting some juice into the barrels. We talk about the process and the man indicates the stuff he has in the pitcher is from the first fermentation and offers us a taste. So we taste it. Wow, good stuff. He talks about the first fermentation and benefits of the acids and all. After about a half hour we head back to the tasting room to finish our tastings. Again we buy (Helen and Charlie mostly) more wine, I think I get a bottle of port.

While we are driving past several of the grape orchards they are in the process of harvesting the grapes. Some are hand cut from the vines, others have these elaborate machines that shake the grapes (and leaves) off of the vines into hoppers, with several persons that remove unwanted items. It is neat to see.

After stopping at four of the wineries, we make it back to the visitor's center. The man behind the tasting bar had indicated that if we bought a couple of wines from him, then he'll throw in the box and Helen and Charlie could ship the wines back to Maine. So we taste the wines he has to offer and after Charlie mentions their preferred wines, comes up with a wine that is to their liking. They get two bottles and set up fixing the boxes and shipping information.

It is a little after 5:00PM by the time we leave Lodi and head back to Stockton. All in all it has been a very enjoyable day. Good company, good wine, and good food. What more can you ask for? We arrive at the hotel around 5:30 and decide to be ready to leave by 6:15PM to go to the rehearsal diner. In the mean time we rest some.

We meet everyone (my brother Paul and his wife Sue, their daughter Stephanie and husband Jeff and daughter Stacia, and others from Maine) at the rehearsal diner and the bride-to-be, Angelina also for the first time. Angelina is very nice as is her family. They make us feel very welcomed. I think my nephew Philip has made a good choice. We are at a Mexican-American restaurant and we pick something from the banquet menu. The food is good and we meet the bride's family and friends and can not wait for the wedding in the morning.


9/27/2008 Wedding day
The wedding is beautiful and the bride has on a very lovely gown with a long train and a veil that covers her face. She is very beautiful. The service is very nice and since Philip is in the Marines, he is in his dress uniform.

There is also a Marine detachment in dress blues along with white gloves and swords. They stand in the isle and as the service is ended and Philip and Angelina walk towards the back of the church, the Marines hold their swords high to create an arch, well except for the last two who block the path and demand payment, a kiss (to the husband), then lets them continue. And as tradition commands, as the bride and groom continue the Marine in command of the detachment swats the new bride with the flat of the sword, softly of course. (I think Angelina was surprised.)

The wedding reception was also very nice. The food fabulous. Later a video is shown providing pictures of Angelina, then Philip, and then both of them. All of it was very nice.

Angelina's family have treated us as part of the family and we appreciate it very much and look forward to meeting both Angelina and her family again.


9/28/2008 Back to Apple Valley
This morning everyone is leaving. Helen and Charlie have a flight in Sacramento that leaves around 11:30AM so must leave by 8:00AM. We do not see them this morning as to not delay them. They must get there, bring the car back, get to the airport, and everything else and no one needs more interference. Besides them, Paul, Sue, Stephanie, Jeff, Stacia, and the newly weds all are leaving around the same time. It would be good if they are all on the same flight together.

The weather in Maine is not so good today as hurricane Kyle is hitting the coast as it heads to Nova Scotia. Hopefully, their flights will be late enough to not be delayed by any rain and wind.

We leave Stockton around 9:30AM and follow the same roads we came here on. The trip back shows the same pretty scenery. This time however, we are also treated with seeing various crops being harvested. Many use machinery to collect the fruits some are hand picked. One field is using a machine that looks like it is pulling something from the ground but we can not tell what it is as we go sailing by the fields.

We do pass a number of double trucks that are carrying tomatoes. Not sure what they will be used for, but I would think the tomatoes on the bottom of the pile would be crushed and if not, definitely not table worthy. Maybe they are going to make sauce or juice.

The rest of the trip back to Apple Valley is as pretty as the trip to Stockton. The country side is gorgeous, changing each mile.

We get back and find that the windshield has been replaced in the motor home and it looks good. The technician that installed the windshield has also indicated that the glass company that put in the previous windshield put it in wrong. The glass was not prepared properly, nor installed properly. Since we paid for part of the last installation we will be looking for some sort of remediation.


9/29/2008 Apple Valley
Today we are just being lazy and will probably leave for Florida tomorrow. We will be getting ready to leave repacking some of the stuff we took out for the trip to Stockton.