I Visited Sonoma When It Felt Like the Middle of Nowhere – Duane Aslaksen
Duane’s Sonoma Journey
This is the first of three stories about Duane’s relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 I Visited Sonoma When It Felt Like the Middle of Nowhere(You are reading this story.)
🟨 I Found Sonoma Before the Crowds – Chapter 2
Click the story title above to continue Duane’s journey as Sonoma becomes home for him and his family.
🟥 Helping Sonoma One Home at a Time – Chapter 3
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The first time I drove to Sonoma in the 1970s, it felt like I was headed to the edge of the world. Once I left Marin behind, there were open fields, very little development, and hardly any signs that a town was ahead. What brought me to Sonoma wasn’t the wine or the restaurants. It was the woman who would become my wife. Long before Sonoma became a destination, I discovered a quiet little town that felt completely removed from everything around it.
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I grew up in Ohio, but after leaving college I headed west, looking for adventure like so many people of my generation.
I lived first in Los Angeles, then Berkeley, and eventually Marin County. Music was a big part of my life, and I spent much of my time playing guitar and working around musicians.
While I was living in Marin, I met the woman who would later become my wife.
She already lived in Sonoma.
That meant every time we wanted to see each other, I made the drive from Marin to Sonoma.
People who know Sonoma today might find this hard to imagine, but those drives felt very different in the 1970s.
Once you left the populated areas behind, there were open fields for miles. There was very little development, very little traffic, and long stretches where it felt like nothing was out there.
I remember wondering if I was ever going to get there.
Sonoma felt like the middle of nowhere.
When I finally arrived, I found a town that was quiet, relaxed, and completely unlike the busy communities around the Bay Area.
There were only a handful of wineries that people talked about. A few restaurants. Most of the Plaza was far simpler than it is today.
Tourists were rare.
People didn’t come to Sonoma because it was famous.
They came because they knew someone who lived here.
One place everyone seemed to know about was Juanita’s Restaurant in Fetters Hot Springs. Friends from Marin talked about driving up because it had a reputation for being lively, colorful, and unlike anywhere else.
Every visit gave me another glimpse of this quiet community.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but those drives were doing more than bringing me to visit someone I cared about.
They were introducing me to a place that would eventually become my home.
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Sonoma in the 1970s felt remarkably isolated compared with today.
Before wine tourism, most visitors came because they had personal connections to the community.
Sometimes a relationship introduces us to a place that quietly becomes part of our future.
First impressions often reveal a side of a community that later generations never experience.
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This story was created from a recorded conversation between Duane Aslaksen and Don Lundgren as part of Sonoma Stories. The story has been edited for clarity and length while preserving Duane’s experiences and observations.
