We were riding our high from our time in the Utah National Parks, but were starting to feel a little like two year olds that were really overdue for naptime. To get to Utah we had driven straight across the 40 with just overnighters then hit the ground running upon arrival in Moab with no lazy days, just go go go.
So, stopping in California wine country (Paso Robles and Carmel) was a welcome respite. Not to mention we could restock! BTW this is how you do wine storage in an RV…every nook and cranny:
Paso Robles was the first stop back in Cali and it was the first time we stayed in one location for a full week. Plus, it was somewhere we had been several times before so we didn’t have a lot of “newness” to investigate. This turned out to be very interesting…
After a couple of days of being low key a lot of feelings started bubbling up…oh crap! We had been on the road for two months and this was the first time we slowed down. The gravity of what we are doing started to sink in…we were outside the matrix and it felt uncomfortable. The first two months we were like kids running around like school just let out for the summer. We felt great! However, with this downtime we had itchy feelings like what are we supposed to be doing every day if we didn’t have an epic hike to do? Could it be that we were actually whining about being B-O-R-E-D? We never thought we had time for hobbies before this. We were always working or if we took a vacation it was a full steam ahead #teamtary style adventure. It was time to work these feelings out!
So, we used this couple of weeks to learn how to chill. We checked out fun and interesting neighborhoods, drove up and down PCH and just admired the spectacular views.
Gary even found himself a hobby and bought a guitar.
Best thing we did?
As we meandered from our Paso campground to our spot in Carmel, we stopped by Hahn Winery for an ATV tour. We were super excited that they had RV parking even though we did have to go three miles down a bumpy dirt road to get there! No, I am not bitter about having to rehang all of our clothes that got jolted off the hangers!
Whatever, bring on the wine!
Best thing we ate?
Our favorite restaurant in Paso Robles is Artisan. We go there every time we visit. This time, after having their brioche toast with a mushroom sauce and a poached egg on top, we decided to make a copycat version at home. We added our own spin on it of course by topping it with bacon! We must confess, below is the picture of the one we ate at the restaurant because ours wasn’t a looker, but was definitely tastier!
What we learned?
Time on the road can catch up with if you aren’t careful. Since you are out there at new places all the time you can run yourself ragged feeling like you need to see and do everything. We know now it is important for us to schedule some downtime at each stop moving forward. Time for hobbies (or for discovering hobbies) and time for relaxing aka PUZZLE TIME! For any of our RV peeps note the yellow felt under the puzzle. It is an awesome puzzle roller upper so our dining table can do double duty as our game table in our tiny home.
Next Stop: Point Reyes National Seashore