Last year at this time, Julia and I embarked on an extravagant journey. Not so much wasteful, or profligate, but extravagant in the original sense, from the verb extravagari, Latin for extra ‘outside’ + vagari ‘wander’. We wandered outside our coastal comfort zone, eastward, through the vast and sparsely peopled land separating the great oceans, and we found it was indeed possible to reach our birthplace, three thousand miles away, without ever leaving the ground. With our tiny Chihuahua on the armrest between us, we witnessed the dramatic beauty of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, then the flat emptiness of the plains, gradually ceding farmland to the sprawling settlements of the northeast.

All along the way, we wondered, “what is this place and what has happened here?” and I used my phone to research the native people and local history of the land we traversed. The trip was fascinating, and we decided to do it again this year on a more northern route. In 1884, Charles Fletcher Lummis, a journalist and activist for Native American rights and historic preservation, walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles in 143 days, noting “I was after neither time nor money, but life, in the truer, broader, sweeter sense, the exhilarant joy of living outside the sorry fences of society.” In recent years, motorists have completed the cross-country trip in less than twenty six hours, but at an average speed of 110 miles per hour, it’s difficult to see the fences, or lack thereof, so we plan to make it a leisurely seven day journey, staying with an old friend in Wyoming, and dear cousins in Michigan, on our way to the Empire State.

Our second annual trans-American extravaganza will begin on August 1st, and I’m tying up loose ends now: bottling vinegar, sampling wine club candidates, and planning in-store tastings beginning again next month. Last year at this time, the Oakland Yard tasting bar reopened after being shuttered for a year and a half, and Daniel and the gang resumed pouring glasses as Julia and I skipped town. This August, in our absence, they’ll be bringing back themed tasting flights and special guests behind the bar, and we’ve got stellar new team members, whom I know you’ll enjoy tasting with and getting to know. Keep an eye on our event calendar; Thursdays, weekends, and even Monday nights at Oakland Yard are about to get a lot more exciting. And do come by for a drink with me before I hit the open road.

Cheers,
Max