We arrived in Sacramento during a rain event that has been going on for over a week. There are many roads that are closed due to flooding, the rivers are still rising, flotsam is threatening shipping lanes in the San Francisco Bay, a train has gone into the river because the track was washed away, just fun, fun, fun!
It did clear up yesterday so Dick Miner, whom I grew up, came over and took us to “his” winery, Miners Leap, located in Freeport, which was very close to us. The winery is owned by Loyal Miner, a relative of Dick’s.
Here we are enjoying the wine tasting room. The sign behind us is actually a speaker that plays songs by the Eagles from the Hotel California album. There are small touch buttons located in the verbiage and each button starts a new song. Pretty cool.
We went back the next day with Melinda and Orville Hrabe (our niece and nephew), who live just across the river from the winery. Loyal (far right) came over to talk with us and show us what he is doing to improve the experience. Lots of neat work going on here, allowing for a summer series of concerts, gorgeous landscaping and newly enlarged tasting room.
We got up at 5:00 AM to travel up to Granite Bay (Folsom Lake) to run in the “Escape from Folsom” 10 mile cross-country event. Due to heavy rains, there was an abundance of mud and water hazards. I watched several runners slip and fall into a couple of streams that we crossed by jumping from rock to rock. There were several grades that exceeded 15% and even the levee that we crossed (background) was surfaced with cobblestones. A true ankle twister if you did not pay attention. I finished the run fairly clean, as the last water “hazard” was about 18″ deep and flowing, washing most of the mud from my shoes and legs. Overall, it was a very fun, and I met and ran stretches with several runners who were enjoyable to talk with. My battery on my camera was exhausted so we had to rely on cell phone pictures.
Ryan Eudy (our brother-in-law) met us on Saturday, after the run, and we went wine tasting at several wineries, handpicked by Ryan. The area has sure become a wine destination over the years and is dotted with numerous wineries. This weekend is the Lodi Wine and Chocolate event, there were tour buses, charter buses and limos at every winery. It was really crowded but the groups of people were dressed in prohibition era clothes and having a good time.
On Sunday, we went back to Miners Leap to pick up a couple of bottles of wine (early to miss the crowds) and headed on to Old Town Sac, which is a State Historical Park. Old Town is located on the Sacramento River, in the heart of Sacramento. There is a paddlewheel riverboat hotel that we stayed at several years ago. You actually stay in the original rooms, which, depending of the location, may be a little off from level.
The State Railway Museum is located at one end of Old Town and this engine is displayed on the tracks in Old Town. It is the early version of a “high-speed, Streamliner” engine, designed to go very fast on straight tracks, and it was not designed to handle curves. The main body of this piece is a one-piece casting. There were two of these on display. Check out the number of rivets! The boiler on this engine operated at 300 psi.
The river is still rising, check out the clearance of the bridge in the background. Not much room under there for a boat.
The stairway in the park across the river lead down to a sunken riverside park. You would need a snorkel to use the park.
Travelling with the Schinglers 