Monday we arrive at the Sacramento Airport earlier than we usually arrive, and thank god that it is warm and green! We have most of the afternoon to wander the small downtown area of Vacaville. We feel that no trip to Vacaville wouldn't be complete without seeing the "creek walk" as the tourist dept calls it. We imagine the river walks of other towns where four star hotels look over it and there are street musicians, art galaries and fine dining and where even on a slow night there are attractive women strolling. We figure that since it is a creek walk it will be like this but smaller. We walk to downtown and look for it. We find it 25 feet down in what could be more described as a gully with drained coffee snaking down it. The one eating establishment that looks over the drainage is closed.
Disappointed we find the first liquor store and buy a pint each of whiskey. Mmmm Ancient Age goes down easy. The city itself is quite quaint and feels like Santa Barbara's poorer, bastard child. Its 3pm and a few stores are closed already so we decide to go back to the hotel and return in the evening to see if the bars are hopping.
9pm
We walk the few blocks from the hotel to downtown and the bars are pretty much empty and mostly sad old men who have been held down by gravity so long they seem to sink into the ground, or the barstool or the booth.
We decide to walk through the old neighborhood next to downtown proper. The houses are big and Victorian and not subdivided into 20 rat hole apartments like they have been in Salt Lake City. We walk checking out the houses, looking in windows, wondering about the lives that are lived in Vacaville.
There is an extened family walking behind us making it difficult to drink. So we cross the street and take a few plugs; that's when Mykul sees an orange tree in someones back yard. Its been years since I smelled the smell of orange blossoms.
One of my strongest memories was being little living in Mission Viejo CA in a new cookie cutter subdivision, one of the first ones in the middle of a large old orange grove. by March the house was flooded with smell of oranges. I'd like to think if there is a heaven, it smells like that. There are no more orange groves in MV, they all have been raped and cemented over.
Mykul wants an orange or two and so do I. We climb up the 10 foot wall using a chair we borrow from someone's dark porch, Mykul being look out. On the otherside of the wall and butted up next to it, is some garden furniture, it will be an easy escape if we get caught. We look around the yard and do not see a sign of anyone or, a dog, so we drop down.
The tree is well hung with oranges. We each pick one and put it to our noses. The smell is intoxicating especially since we only smell heater dust and winter back at home. We now want all of them! Mykul climbs into the tree and starts throwing oranges down to me. We are trying to be quite, but my shirt is so full I keep missing the ones he is throwing and the oranges start making large thuds on the ground. I tell Mykul that maybe we can't take all of them. It takes a little time to convince him but he finally agrees. I give him most the oranges but put three in my coat pocket. I get on top of the wall and Mykul stands on the garden table handing them to me as I quitely drop them on the grass on the otherside. We are giddy until we hear a slidding door open and hear a woman say, " OK Cindy go out and go potty." Either this woman is an abusive mother or Cindy is dog. (who names a dog Cindy?) Mykul has already processed that it is a dog and drops the oranges at his feet and is on the wall with me instantly. We look and see a Boxer staring right at us. Us and the dog look at eachother for only a split second but it feels much longer, then the chorus of barking and growling joined by a second dog. We jump down and hear the sliding glass door open and hear the voice of a man. We start running as fast as we can and ditch into an alley. I don't like alleys and try to aviod them at all costs. The alley is dark and narrow and doesn't say anything to my intrusions We wait a few minutes trying to catch our breath.
Walking back to Main Street we share one of the oranges that I have in my coat pocket. It is very good. We are looking into the bars to see if there are any women, but just more gravity fallen men. We pass one bar kinda quicky and we think we see a beautiful woman. We walk back only to find it to be a Coors cardboard cut out. Damn!
We end up at TJ's tavern. It turns out to be a decent bar with 20-30 somethings and one resident old man who tells stale and unimagintive stores to the younger kids. When we walk in we notice a skinny girl with a pierced lip, she smiles big as we walk in. We have a few drinks and go out to the back porch to smoke a cigarette. The old man is telling his stories staring at me like he sees something on the inside of me that makes him fearful. The pierced lip girl comes out and I light her cigarette. We start talking, tell her we are traveling salesmen looking for a farmer's daughter." she laughs and says we need to go to Fairfield for that. She's pretty and has a snaggle tooth that I can't stop looking at. I love snaggle teeth. We talk and laugh and......... till the sun comes up.
The seminar turns out well eventhough I didn't get any sleep.
But finding a farmer's daughter made Vacaville an alright place.
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