Extended Journey - Sleeping Around

Having slept in 11 different beds in ten different places, we finally arrived back home to Manitou Springs, CO on Sunday, May 18th. We have been driving, so some of our stops, in Ridgecrest-UT, Las Vegas-NV (to see friends), and Wendover-NV, were just one nighters on the way to somewhere else. Some of our longer stops were for assignments or business, and some were to visit family.


We spent 15 nights in Santa Barbara taking care of a delightful B&B - Secret Garden Inn and visiting some wineries (doing tastings of course) an olive oil store Global Gardens (for olive oil tastings) and a lavender farm on our last day. Needless to say, we came away with some cases of wine, olive oil, and lavender oil. One of our greatest joys was being able to shop at Trader Joes. I found a wonderful CA Moscato that is perfect for me. If you don't like sweet, this wine would not be for you. However, I was in seventh heaven and you couldn't beat the price. Howard's favorite spot was just around the corner from the B&B at McConnell's Ice Cream Store. It has some of the best ice cream and yogurt we have ever eaten. It is quite famous.


Our next bed was to be found in Anaheim for 2 nights at the Disneyland Hotel the site of the PAII Conference. We were a vendor along with other Interim Innkeeper Members. It was exhausting, but fun. We met lots of Innkeepers and Aspiring Innkeepers as well as other vendors. Of course, there were lots of things to sample and much literature to collect for use in our Training Classes. We were able to take a little time and attend a couple of sessions so we can be sure we are up to date with what is going on in the B&B industry at large.


Next, we visited Howard's sister, Marsha, in the San Fernando Valley for 8 nights. It was nice to be able to spend some time with her and not have to rush in and out again. We visited the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. It is very impressive. I think we spent 4 hours there touring all of the exhibits including walking through an older Air Force One airplane and looking at the wonderful First Lady's Gown collection.


We left southern CA and headed north to cousins Rusty & Kathie in Novato, CA for 5 nights. Kathie is an orchid lover and her gardens which always were amazing are even more so now. I had fun using the macro feature on my digital camera taking lots of flower pictures. Howard and Russ did a Mercedes Benz 350L day road trip with of course with the top down. That was just fine by Kathie & I as we went garage sale hunting. I found a couple of treasures. You just never know. One person's junk is another persons great find. We all took a day trip to the little town (I do really mean little) of Freestone where we found ourselves at the carbohydrate heaven of the Wild Flour Bread bakery and its wood-burning brick ovens. We all bought some bread to take home and some to nibble on right then. My favorite was the sticky buns. We continued our day trip to another small town, Occidental, where we had lunch at the Union Hotel. We had a great Italian lunch in the traditional family style of cooking.


Our next place of rest was at our daughter Laurie and her families house in San Jose for 4 nights. We had a chance to celebrate Passover with them as well as celebrating Elijah's, our youngest grandson, 2nd birthday. Of course, you can't be a grandparent and bring presents for one without having something for the other. So, we celebrated Josiah's 4th birthday just a little early. We will miss his June birthday this year as we will be in Asheville. We spent one day where the whole family went for a hike on a local trail in Almaden Quicksilver Regional Park. Surprisingly, the little one walked most of the way.


It was time for us to finally get back to business and our next assignment in Pioneertown, CA at the Pioneertown Motel for 9 days. Now this was a new venture for us. Normally, we take care of B&B's. However, when we got the request for the assignment, we figured, what the heck, we will give it a try. Pioneertown is just a few miles from Yucca Valley and about 45 minutes from Palm Springs. It was created as a working movie set by Roy Rogers & Gene Autry back in the 1940's. The current motel housed the actors and the outside was used as a Fort in many western movies.

It is very rustic, with dirt all around, but the rooms are clean and the guests were great. We had tourists coming to see Pioneertown, a helicopter pilot group out for the weekend, horse lovers coming with their horses for trail rides in the desert, a ladies Iron Maiden biker group gathering, writers looking for some inspiration, musicians coming to play at Pappy & Harriet's Palace or visit others who were playing. Now, I never had heard of Pappy & Harriet's before, but apparently, it is known as the best Honky Tonk West of the Mississippi. If you are into this type of music, you haven't made it unless you have played here. It is a very eclectic place. Part restaurant, part bar, part billiards, and large stage area for music to be played. The place rocks with music and Monday night is open mike. All ages can be found both eating and singing. Before we left the area, we took some time to visit Joshua Tree National Park. While this area is desert and barren, it is still beautiful. The groves of Joshua Trees were amazing. We even were visiting at the perfect time, the trees were blooming.

We were supposed to go visit friends Sharon & Al in Las Vegas on our way back home. However, Laurie had a kidney stone attack and subsequent procedure. We decided to go back to San Jose and be with her to help out in any way we could and to spend Mother's Day with her and the boys (Nic had to leave for a business triip). On our way there, we ended up in a hit and run car accident. We were able to drive the car from the little town of Wasco in Kern County to Laurie's. However, when we took the car into the auto shop the next day, they were amazed that it was drivable at all. Someone was looking out for us that's for sure. We ended up with $7,500 damage to the car. Thank goodness for insurance - we only had to pay $500. Consequently, we were stuck in San Jose for 10 days, instead of just a few days, while they fixed the car. We are okay, just shaken up and out of alignment so we are seeing the Chiropractor.

So, our trip was extended a bit longer than we had expected. We are home until June 11 then off to Asheville, NC for two months on another assignment at the Oakland Cottage B&B. Our gypsy feet sure keep us moving around.