Finally Away!

As I sit here at the Courtyard Marriott in Paso Robles, I feel so relaxed.  I was so desperate to get out of town.

I ran the Blossom Trail 10K with my coworkers this morning in Sanger, and had a wonderful time.  The company I work for sponsors the race each year, and they purchase a number of entries for us to participate.  If not for it being a "showing company spirit," I wouldn't have stuck around for the race and would have left town the night before.  I think I came in first in the Company, and I think I set a new PR for myself at 51m53s.  It would have been lower, except I was following the herd, and the herd missed a turn and went around an extra (but small) residential block, adding about 0.13 miles to our course.  Looking back, there was an arrow on the pavement, but no signage, and since the first guy missed it, most of us missed it.  Somewhere after me, somebody figured it out, because I passed on of my coworkers twice: once right before my wrong (lack of a) turn, and once shortly after we were back on course.

Afterward I came home to finish packing and do a little house cleaning.  Right as I was ready to go, I noticed an odor in my bathroom.  The tub had about two inches of water in it.  So did both of the showers.  Ugh.  I called a plumber and described the situation.  He figured it was a backup of the drain, and that the water levels would only rise if more water went into the drain by turning on the faucet or flushing the toilets.  He reassured me that it was unlikely to get any worse and that it could wait until Monday.  I poured some bleach in each area, and cracked the windows to vent it out.  I wasn't about to let this ruin my weekend.

It is weekends like this one that I am so grateful for my traveling with my old job.  I have racked up a lot of hotel rewards points from my extensive travel, mostly with Marriott.  I always had in mind that I was saving them for an awesome honeymoon.  But since my wife has yet to show up, I've decided to start enjoying the use of some of these points.  And I actually have to have some activity on my account each year

It took awhile to get on the road, but I was finally on the freeway at 2:15p because of other interruptions and errands.

I stopped at two wineries on my way to the hotel, Eberle (German for small, wild boar, BTW) and San Antonio Winery, both wonderful.

At Eberle, a woman named Kathy served my tastings.  She was a hoot!  Probably in her 50's, she would pinch her nose and say "voignier" in a high nasally voice just for laughs.  She said they offer five complimentary tastings, but in a hushed tone, she admitted to being lousy at keeping count.  I enjoyed their wines, my favorite being a blend of three whites and a sweet muscat wine.  They had a beautiful deck and hill-top view, so instead of buying a bottle to take home, I just ordered a glass of the muscat and enjoyed the beautiful overcast afternoon.  Sweater weather, but not overly windy or freezing.  It had taken me this long to get here, I figured it was time to stop rushing.

Elise served my tastings at San Antonio Winery.  I had discovered this winery on my trip out this way last year and knew I wanted to visit again.  I purchased a bottle of a sweet red wine that I enjoyed because it's rare for me to find a red wine that I like.

I stopped at A&W for dinner.  I figured that since I ran a 10K that morning, I had earned a root beer float.  Absolutely delicious!

I then checked into the hotel and read for a little while.  I am behind on my reading for seminary and am really working to catch up.  After cranking out a couple of chapters, I donned swim trunks and headed out to the pool.  A young family was there, so I just sat in the hot tub and talked with them for awhile.  Lupe and her fiance Robert were enjoying a bottle of wine while her daughter Diana and niece Leila were alternating between the hot tub and the pool.  They live in Bakersfield (I gave them my sympathies).  Robert used to live in Fresno, and he says he misses it.  Robert is a police officer, and Lupe is a hospice nurse.  They are getting married out here in three months, and are attending a wedding expo tomorrow to help finalize some of their plans.  I did go over once and crank out some laps in the pool, but I tired out pretty quickly.  I figured I did enough to help loosen the muscles.

Then back to the hotel room for some blogging and now off to bed.  No alarm is set for tomorrow, and agenda is entirely TBD!