Hitched and Rolling

As much as we enjoyed our time in Carmel it was time to put the oceanside town in the rear view mirror. 

But before we could do that we had an errand to do. Namely laundry. Bre took command of the laundry situation, as there was a coin operated laundromat just a block and a half away. She headed there and Grant and I went and got her coffee at the nation’s 38th finest coffee establishment (according to the sign). Grant and I agreed that if we had been the proprietors we would have probably advertised it as simply “top 50” but you know what – it’s not the critic who counts. 

In honor of Bre’s offering to take control of the laundry situation I wanted to surprise her with a pastry. I went with the cranberry pecan scone. After dropping off the refreshments with Bre (who was on the phone catching up with her friend Claire), Grant and I had breakfast at a small diner. 

The scone may have been good, but it wasn’t good enough, because Bre was not in a good mood when we came to pick her up. She felt like we had dumped her with the laundry chore while we had eggs Benedict. And she was not wrong. 

Our first stop was the beach where Bre played fetch with Duke. Bre loves to play fetch with Duke, especially in pretty places, and it doesn’t get much prettier than this. Regarding laundry, all was forgiven within a few minutes. 

As we left town our first stop was to fill up on gas and hit the local Safeway for supplies. We had gotten wind that our next accommodation included access to a pizza oven so we went ahead and got the ingredients that we would need to make a pizza, and we had some Safeway sushi for lunch. 

Paso Robles was our destination, about 2-3 hours south and slightly inland. I was in the back doing some work while Grant co-piloted and Bre was in her preferred seat behind the wheel. 

Paso Robles is famous for vineyards. In terms of accommodations for the evening, we had booked a harvest host at a vineyard called Vinyl vineyards, but we felt like we should check out another one before we checked in. We decided on Dark Star Vineyards, probably for no reason other than the fact that the name is a reference to a Grateful Dead song, and the three of us like the Grateful Dead. When we got to the vineyard we did a tasting – which as a non-wine-person was a first for me. We got to try a variety of wines while Duke played with the vineyard’s resident puppy, Chief. 

After that experience was over we headed for our accommodations for the evening. We pulled in just as the sun was setting, snd the combination of sunset and rows of vines made for quite a spectacular scene. 

Vinyl Vineyards has an entire camping infrastructure set up, with a bunch of well decorated, themed trailers for guests. Amenities include: a pizza oven, a pavilion with a sink and picnic tables, a fire pit, hammocks, and grills. 

Grant reserved one of the trailers for himself and Bre and I found a nice flat spot for the van. We were the only people at the remote campsite and it was quite nice to have access to all of the amenities while being able to play our Bluetooth speaker at whatever volume we pleased. It was dark almost immediately and it got chilly, but nothing a flannel and a headlamp couldn’t handle. 

Wine was poured. It turns out Grant maintains dormantly the potential to be a master pizza maker – a skill set which was exercised to the benefit of the group. After our elaborate and delicious dinner, it was very solidly nighttime, probably around 8 or 9 pm. We turned off the pavilion lights and laid in the hammocks under the stars, wrapped in blankets, and listened to music and chatted. Afterwords, Grant gave us a tour of his accommodation for the evening, the “Johnny Cash” trailer, and we spun one of the Man in Black’s records before hitting the van for the night. 

A wonderful day on hitched and rolling.