I have noticed after some years that sometimes the best First Sunday Drives have some spontaneity in them. And our drive for October 2022 was one of the best. We went from suburban Sacramento to Ione, a gold rush town, to higher in the foothills towards another gold rush town – Jackson, then south, where we saw some of the largest vineyards I have ever seen – several that had to be easily a mile long – row after row after row. Not only a mile long, but it seems a mile deep – a square mile.
Then we headed north back towards Sacramento, then west with an impromptu stop at a Sacramento institution – the Davis Ranch at Sloughhouse, another gold rush town. Everyone got out of the car and enjoyed getting some fresh right-off-the-field Sloughhouse corn.
To call this a roadside fruit and vegetable stand isn’t doing it justice - call it an open-air market that is closed during the winter.
I asked our hostess Melinda how she planned this route and she replied “Everytime I got lost, I just turned right”.
As it turned out, we made a giant square a bit over 100 miles.
And the Sloughhouse stop was spontaneous, too.
I’d like to thank Melinda Lincoln for her planning and leading this drive.
Bill Brandt
