CVL

I'm behind in my blog and to my fearless ten readers I say: regrets. Pictured: Carmel Valley Lodge where we stay last week.

Wednesday Moe and Grace greet me at SFO post trans-Atlantic and we drive to CV via Salinas (pop 140,061), a town BTW that remains, steadfastly, in the 1950s. There are franchises which I assumed long-gone like Weinerschnitzel ($5 for five chili dogs), Carvel's ice cream (Dairy Queen too, of course) and a Photo Mat booth in the grocery parking lot for drive-by and drop-off (good God who still develops film?). It is Steinbeck country, Moe points out, and easy to imagine without water. With water, it is one of the most fertile lands in America with lettuce, brussel-sprouts and various greens planted next to sand and dirt (no turtle for the Joads to run over, however). We listen to King Lear along the way (a CD purchased in London) as Sonnet and I will see the play at The Globe. Katie arrives from Stanford's Office of the Presidency where she forms a partnership with The Op-Ed Project. She is fired up.