More than 20 LCOC members, family and friends converged on the beautiful Sebastiani Winery in Sonoma Aug. 9 to enjoy nothing but fun, fun, fun! When old and new friends gather with historic Lincolns for a day of great food, wine and tire kicking what else could result but the best part of the club experience?
Our day at the winery began around 10:30 a.m. when club members began arriving in their classic Lincolns spanning decades from the 1950s to the present. They rumbled in from as far away as Mission Viejo, Orange, Ridgecrest, and Redondo Beach, and from as nearby as Vallejo, Sacramento, Sutter Creek and Alameda. Rainer and Maria Theresa Braun’s 1962 Lincoln sedan even sported a passenger from Antarctica! And that was just the beginning.
Handshaking and hugs got things rolling as new and old friends caught up on the latest news. Then it was time for the main event—tri-tip, chicken and potato salad followed by yummy cookies and brownies. Of course, a wide selection of Sebastiani wines, soft drinks and water added to the ambiance.
A 50-50 raffle raised $140 for LCOC, with winner Elayne Bendel donating a portion of her loot back to the club. A second drawing resulted in numerous guests taking home LCOC merchandise ranging from a collector Lincoln history to signs, flags, fender protectors, sun shades, or wine. A good time certainly was had by all! Our thanks to Jeremy Sanford for making it all happen.
Way too soon it was time to pack up and head for home where extra adventures awaited both going to and coming from the winery. Some of us stayed at nearby Suisun the night before the picnic. It was a surreal experience. This small village about 30 minutes from Sonoma was straight out of the Twilight Zone. The quaint old town situated on the Suisun Channel boasts authentic Victorian-era buildings and businesses.
Being used the to the bustle and congestion of SoCal we were shaken by the lack of cars and people. Does anyone actually live there? It was hard to tell. At 8 p.m. on Friday night bars, restaurants, streets and the waterfront were largely deserted. The historic 1857 Lawler House, later used as an art center, was not only unoccupied but fully shut down. That’s not a native but our own Jim Ayres in front of the small monument below. Rod Serling are you at work here?
The last leg of our journey home also went from the mundane to the bizarre. After crossing over the Grapevine on I-5 near Gorman as darkness descended, the car’s navigator unaccountably took us off the freeway and onto a tiny side road, Route 138. We took the cutoff only because we knew there were fires in the area and perhaps roads closed.
But why were we the only ones there, Rod Serling?
A huge erie orange moon rose in the distance adding to the wierdness. We drove many miles on a variety of tiny side roads past lakes and woods before finally emerging from the Twilight Zone on McBean Parkway near Magic Mountain. Somehow our journey into another dimension had gotten us closer to home and only added 3-4 minutes to our planned ETA. But even that was not the end of the story.
The final leg from Orange to Mission Viejo turned completely frustrating. Merging from the 55 Freeway to I-5 South at 10:30 p.m. all seven lanes were at a dead stop. Hundreds of taillights extended forward for miles. I advanced one car length in 15 minutes. Carefully wiggling into a middle lane i crawled forward eventually reaching the source of the problem—police flares that funneled seven lanes down to just two, due to a passenger who fell, jumped or was pushed from a vehicle at the Tustin Ranch Road offramp resulting in a fatal accident.
Once past there it was clear sailing the rest of the way and nearly at midnight i entered the garage tired but happy after yet another LCOC adventure weekend.
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