Friday April 13, 2012
Well, I’d love to report the harrowing experiences I had with the rain and the hail and the nasty weather that the Central Coast has experienced the last few days. Unfortunately, I can only report that I spent the time safe and warm and happy and holed up in lovely hotels eating great meals and drinking fine wine.
On last report, I had made my way from Solvang to Santa Maria, and I had checked into the Historic Santa Maria Inn. Built in 1917, the Santa Maria Inn is located in the city of Santa Maria, a town of about 100,000 halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Additionally there are several ghosts that haunt the hotel.
Rudolph Valentino, that wonderful entertainer, who seems to haunt everywhere, also haunts the hotel. He apparently likes to knock on room 210 and even recline on the bed in the room.
There are also rumors of the ghost of a sea-captain who was murdered by his mistress long ago appearing inside the hotel.
In addition to the sea-captain and Valentino’s antics, the hotel plays host to a piano that plays by itself, mysterious footprints, unexplained perfume scented smells, music coming out of disconnected speakers, and even an elevator starting up and going to a certain floor at the same time of the day.
At the time of my arrival, it was raining hard. I pulled into the courtyard and up to the front door. Mud covered every part of me, and water dripped everywhere. The delightful young woman at the front desk did not bat an eye as she checked me in and helped me arrange a cart to shuttle my bags and the trike into a nice warm dry room for the night.
After a shower, a change of cloths, and a few hours spent updating this blog, it was off to the restaurant for dinner.
The rain was falling hard, thunder echoed in the sky and the lighting flashed bright every few minutes. If ever there was a night to spot the hotel ghosts, this was it! So I did a short stint of sitting by the warm fire and looking for ghosts and spirits. Sadly, the only spirits I spotted were those that I ordered up from the bar.
Off to bed, wondering what tomorrow would bring….
The next morning, the rain continued to fall. The forecast called for rain all day and it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to ride anywhere today.
I had planned to meet Nancy is Paso Robles today, about 40 miles north of Santa Maria. I obviously was not going to do that. So the next best thing, Nancy came to me in Santa Maria!. She was apparently quite eager to explore the Santa Maria Inn, since she left Newport Beach at 5:30 AM! She arrived at about 9:00 and we packed up the car and headed to Paso.
The day began to clear slightly as we made our way North. It is so good to be with Nancy again. Her presence brings me peace and calms my spirit. As much as I have loved the ride over the last week, I feel as happy as I ever am on this rainy morning just sitting next to her in the car!
Once in Paso, we did what we had come to do. Wine time….
We stopped off at Wild Coyote Winery on the way back to the hotel. A very interesting place, and a couple of the wines are excellent. There is also a Bed and Breakfast on the site that looks like it might be a lot of fun! We love stumbling across little gems like this while we are tasting!
On Saturday – more wine tasting and just relaxing together
We are planning to ride together in Paso Robles on Sunday, so we stopped off at the Best Bike Zone store in Paso Robles and asked for advice about a good route. The owner, Steve Fleury, was incredibly nice and helpful. He and his wife ride a recumbent tandem. I definitely recommend stopping by to see these folks if you need cycling support in the Paso Robles Area.
In the afternoon, we stopped at the Cellar 360 tasting room. What a gorgeous place! The woman who gave us the tasting here is the mother of the girl who is working the front desk at the hotel where we are staying.