After traversing Yosemite we finished the day in Sonora, it was kind of the first normal American town we have stayed in, it wasn’t particularly pretty, or filled with historic picture perfect buildings and homes, it was… normal. A seemingly dusty, tired, ‘go to work and come home again’ middle class town. Back in the day Sonora was settled by Mexicans in 1848 all after the elusive mother load, this was (yet another) town full of drunkards, gamblers and miners, racial unrest drove the Mexicans out and their European usurpers got rich when they struck the gold. 12 tonnes of gold were extracted in 2 years.
We stayed at the Sonora Inn http://www.daysinn.com/DaysInn/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=09888 it was one of the original buildings in the town ship built in 1896, being the oldest hotel in town it looks old and Spanish on the outside and, where we stayed in the main building, it was dated….but scrupulously clean, Rosie always does the CSI check of the bedding and shower, this place was not wanting at all and we had a lovely nights sleep. The lift I must say was cool, it was the old fashioned type where you hopped into the cage and pulled the brass grill shut…we were only going up two floors but man it rattled and clanged….we took the stairs after that.
Rosie and The Operator have been eating far too much Pizza and Burgers….so it was great when we came across Christopher’s Ristorante which is based in the hotel. http://christophersristorante.com/wp/about-us/
Christopher is from Sicily and I can say it was one of the most outstanding Italian meals I have ever had. He makes his own Balsamic reduction which was divine when matched with fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and locally pressed Olive Oil in a Caprese Salad. Our main course was handmade al dente crab ravioli in a mild sherry cream sauce….there was no sauce left on both Rosie or The Operators plates after that course….embaressingly they even asked if we wanted more seeing as we had licked the plate clean….we finished with a very rich Tirimisu which rounded off the night well.
We were destined for the Sacramento River Delta today, a circuitous route that saw us navigate the gently winding roads alongside the levees and lush wetlands of the San Joaquin river. This was rich land, grape, apple, orange and corn fields were lush all round us, a sign we passed on the roadside read ‘water is life’ these folk were lucky to be able to harness this river. All the cropping fields and orchards had narrow irrigation channels out into their fields and masses of sprinkler systems too. Amongst the green there were patches of brown where properties were for sale…no water coming in there on their land while it was empty.
The first town we came to was the spooky little ghost town of Locke, this was the first free standing Chinatown in the US, this meant its status was outside the law, so anything went…back in its day it was a hot bed of drinking, gambling, whoring and bootlegging. From there it just trickled into non existence.
A few people are still living in the village but everything is rotted, empty and falling down. Its quiet and erie.
The drive along the riverside showed plenty of boats out for a days fishing and we crossed over many iron bridges, all equipped to raise up if a big boat were to come along. This area is contentious because major rivers have been dammed to redirect water for agriculture purposes in this central belt.
We drove to Isleton where we had read we could get a lovely meal of Crawdads at Joes. This town is the Crawdad Capitol of the USA and have a huge festival once a year to celebrate the towns gourmet treat.
Rosie was envisioning giant prawns, but they are what we would call Crawlies and they look exactly like mini lobster. You catch them in a pot net, there is no limit to the number you can catch but they must be a minimum of three inches long from head to tail tip.
Our waitress Sharlene knew we were green when it came to Crawdaddies, but she wasn’t giving much away….we opted for two pounds worth of the delights and it came with a salad and garlic bread. She said they were messy wee critters to eat and came back to the table with plastic man bibs….Rosie looked around to see if this was just a ‘take the piss out of the tourist’ joke…but men were sitting at the bar sucking the juice out of the Craws head and talking politics ….wearing man bibs, we tied them on, and waited.
The steaming pot came out and Sharlene demonstrated how to peel the Crawdads, just like prawns but with a wee trick, make sure you peel off the poop shoot. Oh, she said, I hope you like spicy food…well the Cajun spice they were cooked in was mind blowing, the Craws fiddly to peel and for such a good looking crustacean had only a tiny bit of meat in its tail…but it was fun. The Operator had the peeling trick down to a fine art, now you see them now you don’t.
