Today. A normal working day for me sounded pretty rough on paper. Wake up at 5, take Uber to airport at 6, fly to Sacramento at 8-30, drive out 2 hours to a site. Turn around when done and drive 3 hours back to San Francisco. Hard and tiring, right? Wrong.
Some days are more exceptional than others and today was one of those days for so many unexpected and delightful reasons. One of them of course being the lovely company.
I was headed to San Andreas. A sleepy little town tucked
between some gorgeous mountains and picture postcard countryside. A one horse town to us city dwellers.
Driving past never ending Californian vineyards, frequently interrupted with ranches with cows, horses, sheep and in one place even wild deer, we arrived at our first pit stop, the local airport where we met Mommy Kathy.
All of 83 years old, this delightful young lady runs the local airport where small planes land. Renting hangars to planes who want to park, (do planes park? Wtv) she also supplies fuel and offers the couch in her office to any pilot wanting to spend the night for free, she runs a business that makes a reasonable profit. Once a year she and her four buddies fly the kids of the little county around for ten dollars each, on “airport day”. She offered to take us too, but I politely declined.
She lives with her boyfriend in his late 70’s. I wonder if 20 years from now I will be as agile, ready to rush to work each morning and handle a boyfriend on the side. She was contemplating retirement but pushed it to a later date. What spirit.
Donning Jeans, hair pulled back in a silvery ponytail, laughing to reveal lines on her face that has seen many mean winters, she engaged in animated conversation not indicative of her age.
After I finished doing what I had come to actually do (Feng Shui of a new house in the hills) we headed to lunch.
We arrive at one of the two places one can eat at, a deli, (the other place is Mexican.) Not expecting much from a place that has Formica topped tables and melamine plates, and a very limited menu, basically sandwich soup salad and three kinds of cake, I settled for their special, without paying much attention but declining a soup, which in the USA can feed a starving family back home.
Oops, I was too quick to judge a place where the locals assembled with dog, grandma and grandpa in tow for lunch and gossip. Across the way two policemen share lunch on their break, while younger folk brave the cold outside tables to try and get some sun while the faint hearted like me chose to remain in the safety of a heated room.
The meal arrives pretty quickly. The server knows everyone by first name. I take a bite of my sandwich and for a moment I think I just died and went to heaven.
The unexpected explosion of flavour takes me by surprise. This unassuming little place, that now suddenly starts looking cute, came up with something I have yet to taste anywhere in the world. The softest, juiciest, tender, flavoursome meat that was probably grazing some place along the way until yesterday was now on my plate nestled between home made bread and melted cheese, and it totally hit the spot.
Simple lunch over we now make our way to San Francisco where I will spend the night. Miles of fruit trees in various stages of growth, some still in the bareness of winter, others already in bloom, flank the road on either side.
Small homes out of Farmville, homesteads that I thought only existed in a Hollywood set, showed me there is a rural America we or at least I was so ignorant about.
Along the way we see fruit stands and farmers markets where you can buy local produce for almost nothing.
Reaching out for some grapes, I discover the sweetest and most flavour packed red grapes I have eaten in my entire life. If this is what farm to table means I can really appreciate the difference.
And while I could say I have had a long hard day being in three different cities in 17 hours, honestly it was a day well spent.
I love my life. I don’t know what tomorrow brings but today was awesome. Getting so excited over a sandwich and fruit lunch? That’s me.
