OK. Every day on this trip so far, I've worried that the kids were going to smash their heads on the corners of the protruding slideout units on the RV. I guess I should have worried more about my own noggin...
Today was the day I had reserved seven tickets to tour the upstairs of the
Hearst Castle at San Simeon at noon. Our departure from Morro bay was delayed a bit and we had decided to drop off the RV at the
Wine Country RV Resort in Paso Robles and drive the Super Cucas Shuttle up the coast to the mansion. In my haste to connect our rig to the water/sewer/electric hookup, I made a quick turn right into the edge of the raised metal access door panel. After uttering a few choice four-letter words and pacing around until the pain started to subside, I noticed a wet feeling on my forehead. If any of you heard about Lee Park's head's encounter with the ice surface at Lansing Chapman Rink about 12 years ago, I can assure you that my injury was much less severe—yet I still lost a good volume of blood. Scalps bleed like you can't imagine without experience it yourself. Fortunately, I was traveling with two physicians. Laura sized up the situation and, after stopping the bleeding, fitted me with a fashionable piece of cotton gauze from the RV first aid kit and a foot-long piece of tape that ran from temple to temple. I donned my Red Sox cap to try to conceal the dressing—which now made me look like an even crazier head-wound victim who had something to hide. I was embarrassed and had a pretty good headache, but was otherwise OK. I think the kids were a little freaked out, though. Somehow, I had managed to keep from bleeding on my clothes, but my hands looked like I had been gutting a deer or something.
(Photo removed to limit graphic content)
As a result of my little tete-a-steel, we were late for our Hearst Castle tour. Fortunately, the guides were able to accommodate us on some later tours, but we had to split up into two groups. It was really cool to see the upstairs room in the mansion. My favorite was the "guest library. I've decided that our home living room renovations should be modeled after this.
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See the Gauze?
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| Neb and Da Girlz in front of a Guest House |
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| Corner of the Guest Library |
It was another beautiful California day and the views from the castle grounds were spectacular. Driving down the windy path from the castle made us all a little queasy, but might just have been residual effects from the head wound.
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| Pacific Views from the Mansion |
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| Time for a Quick Dip? |
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| Aaahhhh. |
The pain of my unfortunate door encounter was made much more bearable by the wines we tasted at the
Opolo Vineyard on our return drive. The Paso Robles area is the new Sonoma/Napa Valley wine region in California. There were at least 50 vineyards we could have stopped at along our route, but we chose this one because Neb had enjoyed their wines at Costco... Despite their warehouse appeal, I found their wines to be very enjoyable. All told, we tasted about ten wines. Neb signed up to be a "member" and I was able to use his membership discount to buy a few nice bottles of wine to share with Rachelle. Meanwhile, the kids were in the parking lot throwing rocks. I would have been more attuned to this were it not for the distraction of my pulsating head wound and current state of inebriation.
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| Amaya at Opolo Vinyard—Wine Tasting? |
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Just in case we hadn't proved our parental ineptitude beyond a doubt, we punished the girls' behavior by taking them for a swim in the campground pool and treating them to dinner at the
Firestone-Walker Taproom in town... Truth be told, they were quite well behaved all day, especially given that a number of our activities were not particularly kid friendly. Overall, another great day for everyone.
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| Cut Her Off. She Can't Hold Her Root Beer! |
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| Firestone Walker Taproom, Paso Robles |
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