The Trials of Wine Tasting

This is just an entry to get my feet wet after being so derelict in my duties to my five faithful readers. After a week of vacation, I came back to a steaming pile of work which has taken up far too much of my time.

While we were in CA, we drove north to Paso Robles where we rented a limo and drove around (ahem, were driven...by a driver who was missing 1/2 of his right pointer finger!) to a bunch of wineries and got quite silly. After we had bought about 5 cases of wine, we had the limo drop us at a restaurant in town where we had a great meal. When we ordered dessert, we asked the hostess to call us a cab. After a few minutes, she came to our table and told us that taxis in Paso Robles don't run after 7:00 PM. And it was 8:15. And we had sent Fingerless Rick away. And there are no sidewalks in CA.

Chris called the Hampton Inn to inquire as to if they had a service for stranded guests. They thought it would be best to transfer him to the local police who, you will be surprised to hear, were not interested in giving us a lift. Chris reminded the local constabulary that we were in this pickle because we were obeying the laws regarding driving under the influence but they still declined to take us back to our hotel. After confirming that the police would not arrest us for walking on the freeway or hitchhiking if it came to that, Chris redialed the Hampton Inn and asked for the manager. He was placed on hold a few times (apparently, no one has ever dared to ask for the manager; she is sort of like the Wizard of Oz) and then finally transferred with Night Manager. Night Manager seemed unconcerned at our situation but after Chris explained it to her four more times, she offered to come get us at the end of her shift in 45 minutes. At the same time, the waitress was telling me that the hostess could drive us back to our hotel right then.

So we had the 16 year old hostess driveus back to our hotel and gave her $20.00 for her troubles and then we spent the rest of the night shouting “I can’t BELIEVE it!” and “You can get a taxi in freakin’ Johnson, Vermont!” and “Who doesn’t have taxis after 7:00!?”