Drove Hwy 1 on the coast for awhile and then swung inland to Los Olivos and the scenic Hwy 154, actual location for shooting of the movie 'Sideways'.
Spent time at the Los Olivos Tasting Room & Wine Shop. The inside is decorated a little like an modern saloon with a lot of real wood panelling and decent local art for sale. I walked in and no one was there, but it was nice and cool compared to outside.
I knew someone was in the back, I could hear them, but didn't want to say anything. I just wanted to soak up the whole space first, the bottle of wines on display, the cool air, the smell of wine.
Then two couples came in and wine tasting pandemonium was soon underway. We paid our 10 dollars to be served 6 or 7 samples of wine. I just stood back listening to talk of plums, rose, nut, chocolate, berry, etc. The flavors and smells were surreal. We started with a Chardonnay, followed by Riesling, some Bordeau blends, pinot noir, syrah, and finished off with a fine raspberry desert wine
The names of the wines aren't important, can't import to Canada.
His selection and their ordering was so incredible, it felt like I had made love to seven different women over a span of 30 years, and had the time line squished into one hour. I even wanted to make love to him for introducing me to those seven goddesses!
Feeling rather 'well' I figured I should have some lunch across the street and wait this out an hour.
Got underway again in the sweltering heat, but it wasn't an hour before I was into the cool air of the coast.
Automobile drivers don't realize how variable the environment is outside their cage. A dip in the road and ur in cool air, turn inland and the heat gets turned on, rise in elevation even slightly and ur in a cool but dry air, head back to the coast and its cool but moist and ur clothing and visor fogs up quickly, especially at night.
The same goes for smells. I can pick up a fox versus a marsupial, versus a squirrel or a dog from about 50 yards away, before I can even see them in the ditch for their smells are so strong and evident on a motorcycle. Same goes for fruit or flower orchards.
At any rate I pulled into Morro Strand State Park and at the entrance gate, the man before me, also on a motorcycle, was discussing campsite options for $35. Both of us thought that was too much for a site, so he asked me if I wanted to split one site.
What a good idea!
My new friend's name is Jan' Kadlec (Hanza people call him). He lives on the California side of Lake Tahoe. We both agreed to the same campsite and setup our tents and stuff while drinking his beer. I was exhausted from my ride so soon took a nap, but not before I nice long dip in the ocean; our campsite was ON the beach, in the sand!
I woke up and Hanza had returned with more beer and a sandwich that we also shared. We spent a good part of the evening, after I returned from side-trip into town, watching the sun set, talking about life after work (he's 62 you see and approaching retirement), women, machines, and the simple things in life like camping and the road. We talked at length about his life, when he came to the US from the Czech Republic as a veterinarian to his current life style of ski patrol and carpenter. It was a fascinating discussion and I was glad to have made a new friend.
I may just modify my return plans to head back to Lake Tahoe instead of the mid-west. We'll see.
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| From Moto2009 |
Same weather and smell sensitivity in a convertible... probably not near that on a bike. It was crazy driving through the up and down through the mountains...
ReplyDeleteThe thing that still impresses me is how hot the air is when passing under overpasses at night.