Summer Lovin'

Yesterday, I conquered I-5. In a 1992 beige Ford Tempo. A what you ask? A Ford Tempo. It’s real. See?

His name is Sheldon, and he gets me where I need to go. Most of the time.

Anyways, I drove from San Luis Obispo to Woodland today. I was long overdue for a visit home, plus I have jury duty on Monday. So I loaded up Sheldon, prayed for a miracle, and hit the road for my six hour journey. 

The drive was uneventful, thankfully. The most exciting thing was being pelted with garlic wrapper leaves and watching a semi almost lose its load of tomatoes. Nothing too out of the ordinary. 

Summer at home always feels a little more summery to me. I’m sure everyone feels the same way- home does that to you. For me, there is something about being outside at eight at night and just taking it all in before the sun sets that really gets me. I’m nostalgic like that.

Last night, my brother took my mom and me out for a ride in his 1946 Willys Jeep. The kid restored the whole thing himself. You should have seen it when he got it. Total junker. He has a way with cars, to say the least. Did I mention he’s only seventeen? He also really dressed up for the occasion.

We set out heading west, with my hair blowing in my eyes. We drove past little ranchettes like ours, filled with horses, cows and goats, in addition to some barking dogs and screaming kids. 

When we turned onto the next county road, the air seemed cooler and we were suddenly surrounded by rice patties. Rice patties have always been so calming and pretty to me. It’s like a green carpet stretching for acres, and when its 114 degrees out, even the illusion of feeling a little cooler around the rice patties is comforting. 

We passed some more cows (Holsteins this time), what I think was a squash field, and more rice patties. Once again we turned and the wind was still blowing my hair into my eyes (I need to remember a hair tie next time). As my hair was slapping me in the face, I saw that we were now surrounded by alfalfa.  The smell was wonderful. All sweet and earthy.  I love that smell. As we finished our drive we passed corn and tomato fields as well. 

How fortunate am I to get to drive around in a jeep and see so many different types of agriculture so close to my own home? Most people think their food comes from a grocery store, but I can see exactly where food was planted, where it grew, and where it was harvested. 

I love agriculture. 

I always appreciate my farmers, but summer reminds me why I love them so much. For starters, my evening drives wouldn’t be near as beautiful without cows, horses, rice patties, alfalfa, corn and tomato fields. My drives from San Luis Obispo to Woodland wouldn’t have the added excitement of guessing what crop is in each truck or the challenge of dodging garlic wrapper leaves and rouge tomatoes. My dad couldn’t bbq me some awesome steak and my mom couldn’t roast any corn on the cob. Without farmers, home summers wouldn’t be summer at all.