A Fabulous Weekend Cut Short

After a long and amazing day, it was time for a little relaxation. Before heading back to the hotel, The Traveling Hillbilly made a quick stop to do a little wine tasting at Bernardus, a lodge just down the road from the hotel. The lodge is actually on the grounds of the winery and it truly is charming. However, the tasting room is about 2 more miles down the road. The folks at the tasting room were fun, friendly and you could tell they were enjoying their jobs. I must admit though, I was not thrilled with the wines there. After the great wines I had in the Paso Robles region, the bar was set pretty high.

I had originally only booked two nights at the hotel to give myself some flexibility for the weekend. Would I want to continue my drive North or head back home? I decided I’d get up in the morning and head back to Paso Robles. It would give me a chance to tour some more great wineries in the region, get a good night’s rest and I’d even be a little closer to home when it was time to leave on Sunday.

Unfortunately, my car had other plans for me. I got in my car, started it up and drove a few feet before several lights/codes started flashing on, traction control failure, stability control failure, my ABS light came on. I pulled over stopped the car, thinking maybe it’s just a computer glitch and needs to be “re-booted.” The dealer had mentioned to me at one point that sometimes happens. Unfortunately when I went to restart the car, I got nothing, absolutely nothing. The car was dead. I was stuck. Hhhhhmmmm what to do?

By some stroke of luck, it finally started about 20 minutes later and I decided I just better head straight home. I didn’t want to risk stopping for another night and not being able to get the car started again. At least if I had problems on the way home, I’d still have time to deal with the car and make it back home by Sunday.

I was about 40 minutes from home when my “engine coolant” light came on. Was this another technical glitch or a real issue? Was it worth the risk to stop the car and see? I decided I’d try and make it home. About a mile from home, all the lights came back on again, but I did make it home.

So my weekend was cut a little short and who knows what the repairs will be when I take the car in Monday morning. But the weekend’s not over yet and I truly had an amazing time. I still have one more day to relax and reflect on my journey.

When you travel often, there are always bumps in the road and these things happen. You just have to remember what’s really important and not let it ruin your trip. It’s just another part of the journey and often adds to the adventure.

After all one of my favorite travel memories is being “stuck” in Paris for 9 days after the rail workers went on strike and I couldn’t catch my train out of Paris to head to Italy.