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| Photo- The wonderful landscaping near the pool area at Lamp Liter Inn. |
I sleep wonderfully with that hum of traffic and the next
morning woke up refreshed. The Lamp
Liter Inn has been past its heyday but it was clean and had some nice
landscaping. There were cute little homey touches like- fake plants in the room and cute little tole paintings on the doors to the room. But there was a shortage of plug ins and that was a bit of a challenge for a lamp top, cell phone, and etc. There was also a very nice
pool that I would’ve liked to enjoy but it was just a bit on the cold
side. I went over to the restaurant and
had lunch while in the next booth a couple of local businessman talked about salvaging
some fruit. It was interesting hearing
them talk and I just sat quietly eavesdropping.
When I went to check out,turned in my key (an actual metal key) and I asked the clerk about something
nearby where I could explore or check out for a couple of hours. It wasn’t that far of a drive over to Templeton
and I had told the Bed and Breakfast there that my expected arrival time would
be about 4pm. So I had a bit of time on
my hands. The clerk recommended a local
park called Grove Park. The park was a
place along the “Trail of Tears” and there was also a museum on the premises
and a huge Indian statue too. It sounded
perfect for what I was looking for. I
got the directions and headed out.
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| Photo- Grove Park's Trail of Tears statue as I took through fence posts. |
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| Photo- Yep! Another place that got the memo about my coming to town! |
I got there to the entrance to the park and found that they
had gotten the memo about me being in town too.
The park was closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I found a parking spot just off the road and
took a picture of the statue between the bars of the fence. But it appears that the “Trail of Tears” was
closed to me today. Darn it! I drove back through the town of Visalia
which seemed like it had the usual city fare of shopping strip malls and
restaurants; all of which was landscaped with a touch of palm trees. I found the freeway and headed south wearily
following the Google directions.
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| Photo- Some of the barren area but with a bit of hills. |
I headed into a huge flat area with almost a nothing out
there type of landscape. It rather
reminded me of the drive from Salt Lake City to Wendover, NV where you drive
for miles with the Salt Flats to the north.
Only I will say that this nothingness did have warmer colors than the
grays out by the Salt Flats. The
landscape was all a golden blond of dry flat but at least the sky was blue. The landscape slowly turned to a bit more
hilly but with the same colors.
I finally came to a small town that had a gas station and
thought I had better fuel up since I didn’t know when the next station would
be. While there I asked the Latino man
at the counter where the restroom was.
He pointed to the back and said all the way back and to your left. I ended up going back in the stock room area
where there was the dirtiest restroom ever.
I didn’t sit and I tried to touch as little as possible but when you got
to go, you got to go. I continued my
drive towards Templeton.
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| Photo- A wonderful ocean view just south of where the Hearst Castle turn off is. |
As I got closer to Templeton the scenery really changed and
became pretty. It was about two hours earlier
than what I had told the Bike Lane Inn to expect me. I decided to check out this sign that said
Hearst Castle 32 miles away. I ended up
going along some farms and vineyards on Hwy 46 on the way over to Hwy 1 where I
ended up at the ocean beach. It was a
beautiful scenic drive. I did eventually end up
driving to the entrance of the California State Park entrance for Hearst Castle
but it was terribly busy and I wanted to back in time to check in to my room at
Bike Lane Inn. So I turned around and
headed back towards Templeton.
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| Photo- The very scenic vineyard area just outside of Templeton. |
Bike Lane Inn is a wonderful little bed and breakfast that
kind of caters to cyclists. After I got
settled in a bit, Elaine served me wine with crackers and cheese and sat down
with me. We pored over bike map routes
that her and her husband had designed for the area. There were several different distances and
routes to choose from. This was
wonderful! I wish I had gotten told them
that I would’ve arrived sooner and then I could have gone out that night. But
it was too late for that night. Instead,
I changed and walked down the four blocks to Templeton’s Main Street to find
somewhere for dinner that night.
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| Photo- The inside of AJ's Spur with a wonderful old western saloon feel to it. |
I decided to eat at A.J.’s Spur which was an old fashioned
western restaurant/saloon. I sat at the
bar area and ordered a beer along with a bar special for dinner. While I was still working on my dinner I got
involved with talking to an older gentlemen named Ike who was taking care of some
family business in the area. We talked
about the area of Templeton and my experience in Fresno and all matter of
subjects. The next thing I know it’s
after 9PM and they are closing down the restaurant and bar.
Due to the poor economy a great deal of places closed
earlier. If you wanted to actually go
out to a bar in the area, you would have to drive to near Paso Robles and go to
Applebee’s. This rather floored me
because I thought Utah could be bad for bars and people that liked to
drink. But then again, I wondered how
much of it was done that way because everyone may have already been out wine
tasting at various vineyards and may have already had enough to drink in one
day. Calling it a night, I walked back
up the hill to the Bike Lane Inn.
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