Mendocino County is being sued for a raid on a cannabis farm. The complainants will, no doubt, expect a trial by jury, a jury drawn from peers in Mendocino County. Who are cannabis farmers. Mendo will settle before going to trial, of course, and pay a lot to the complainants for their trouble and any damage caused.

I pulled into the fairgrounds here just as the rain started falling. It looks like my next travel day will be Thursday. With every village, town, city, and county in the state working on imposing cannabis taxes on everybody they can see, I humbly suggest they devote all of it to the maintenance of streets and roads. The state, too. And then I'd go looking for that extra 50 cents a gallon everybody pays for gas and use that for maintenance. I...

Things felt familiar driving down winery row: this is where so much of my money has gone over the years. I'm at the fairgrounds until Monday. Rain starts tomorrow. Every time I'm here it rains.

In 1976, two California wines came in first place in a Parisian tasting, much to the entire world's surprise. The Spanish planted the first vines in 1769, so the farmers around here had some experience. The international recognition led to expanding the California market considerably, while Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia quickly followed suit. West Coast wine is a very large market world-wide today. In 1996 California voters approved...

When I came down into the valley I noticed that it was "hazy". Dust thrown up by the ag activities. I couldn't see any mountains. Today it was just as hazy, and visibility was low. That's a lot of dust. Tonight I learn it wasn't dust, it was good old-fashioned internal combustion engine exhausts, our favorite Califonia smog. I was hoping for progress....

My hope was that I-5 would be in better shape than 99, and it was, but, like 99, maintenance was skipped at the overpasses. Add all the trucks, and it was a mess. You know those useless agricultural stations that you stop at when you enter California? I suggest adding a departure station where the state hands you a gift card to cover damage to your vehicle while using CA roads. Worst in the West, by far. So I'm in Lodi at an RV park until...

I'm in Lemoore, at a very big casino, somewhere in the middle of the SJ Valley. I survived the most unappealing Mojave Desert, and spent a few hours on CA 99. They've resurfaced 99 since I was here last, which was a relief. Then I noted that they excluded repairing two things: the top of an overpass, and the road under an overpass. It was vicious. I'm moving over to I-5 tomorrow. I'll stay at Lodi for two nights to rest up before heading to Napa...

I picked up my third pair of glasses today. The new prescription is great, and they were done nicely at Algodones Optical. Now I have three pair all with the same prescription, much easier. So I'm tired of Algodones, and Yuma, and have nothing else to do here. I'm thinking redwoods and surf. Screw the rain, but I'm hoping against terrible rain, road closures, and flooding. A couple of years ago my fear was fire. I'll go to Slab City tomorrow,...

After three years of legal retail cannabis I expected a lot of interesting bills in the legislature this year. Apparently, folk in Washington are satisfied with their system as there are not any game changers in the works. The State itself seems most interested in maximizing tax revenues from it's primary cannabis tax collection agency, the retail stores. There are 486 retail licenses issued in WA, but only about 300 are actually in operation...

This weekend the Cannabis Cup (a large outdoor pot party that moves around the country) will be held in Nevada (which is quickly bringing up it's retail system), on the lands of the Paiute tribe (Who, like all Natives, are stuck in legal limbo regarding cannabis), under a new administration which is opaque right now on the whole topic, but the US Attorney for the region has warned that the whole thing is illegal. I'll be watching how this works,...

In keeping with my bouncing around, I'm back in Yuma for a while. 2 pairs of glasses are on my list for this visit. I'm thinking I'll be here one week for sure, maybe two.....

I quote: Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.) told CNN on Wednesday morning that a nuclear bomb could be smuggled into the United States hidden inside marijuana. Google it and see some of hilarious responses to this. I was there the night we came up with this idea I think in 1969. We were sitting around mocking the Drug Enforcement Agency and Border control for their ineptitude in "stopping marijuana" from crossing the border. I owe a lot of the idea to my...