Lodi, CA

We arrived into the Stockton Delta Tower KOA on April 25.  We had never heard of the CA Delta region and was hoping to kayak on the sloughs off the San Joaquin and/or Sacramento rivers.  The park had this big bouncy trampoline (see picture below) feature in their playground that we have never seen.  There were people of all ages on it the entire week we were there, sometimes as many as 15 kids at one time and we enjoyed watching them from our site.

Oak Ridge Winery is the oldest operating winery in Lodi, California, built in 1934.  The Oak Ridge Winery tasting facility is located inside a beautiful 50,000 gallon California redwood tank. As a tank, it’s so big that earlier owners gave it the name of Das Weinhaus or “The Wine House.” The tank was first used for wine storage by the Roma Wine Company when it reopened shortly after the repeal of the national Prohibition law in the 1930s. It was then used by a couple of wineries until being moved to it’s present location at Oak Ridge Winery.  The floor, staves, and top of the tank are original. The doors, windows, and roof were added at that time.

We only made it out sightseeing one day as Lexie was having gastro issues.  So we took her to a vet, got medications and then gave her a couple recovery days.  On our day trip, we went down to Manteca to check out another membership park, Turtle Beach.   The park is right on the San Joaquin river and had great places to put in the kayaks.  We enjoyed seeing the geese and their little ones in the field above the slough.  The only TTN park we have not visited in CA is the Yosemite park.

We then travelled to Discovery Bay, CA which is a man made development where every home has waterfront property in their backyard, except the golf country club homes.  We looked at one very small lot that was for sale - $465,000 for just the lot with utilities.  Almost every home we saw had boats parked at their homes, but the community also had a very impressive marina with dry and slip storage.

On our way back to camp, we drove along the western side of the Delta, hwy 160 to Rio Vista and then east on hwy 12.   We didn't realize that hwy 160 was a $5.00 toll, but it provided the best view of the Delta we could see from any one spot.  The bridge went way up, but of course we could not stop to take pictures.  This area has draw bridges everywhere, sometimes 2-3 in a 5 mile stretch of road.

We did get one day of kayaking in, putting the kayaks in right at the boat ramp, on the KOA property.  Beautiful day and we saw some wildlife - lots of birds, a turtle and river otters.  Such a peaceful trip down the sloughs.  The KOA property is shared with the business that runs the marina and boat storage along with a Yacht sales company, Ice Cream Shop, Restaurant and Canvas repair company.  There was watercraft of all sizes, houseboats, yachts, boats of all sizes, kayak rentals, etc.

River Otters

KOA store and office by the marina.  

Marina at the park 

One of about 12 plus boat storage areas.  

Next time we'll definitely want to visit more wineries and consider visiting the town of Livermore, CA, a town where John Madden's development company is building retail space, and the company is being ran by John's son, Mike.  We also had the recommendation to try Yorkville Cellars while visiting the town.  Also, next time through the Fresno area, we would like to see the Forestiere Underground Gardens.

On Monday, May 2, we headed north to stay in another membership park, Lake Minden in Nicolaus,  CA.