More Morro. Changes. New destinations.

You know that feeling that you get when you see your first robin of the spring? Or how suddenly the trees in your yard have little leaves in the spring?

It was that way for me yesterday when I came over from Mojave to Tehachapi on my way to Bakersfield..

It's only maybe a thousand feet in elevation gain from the desert floor to Tehachapi, but the world literally goes from brown to green in 20 or so miles.

After Grants and Laughlin, it was good to see some color. I'd feared that with the drought here in California, that maybe spring had been passed over. But no, it was awesomely green in the central valley and the Sierra foothills. Great to see.

Checked into my my motel and went for a walk around town. Still the same, though a few stores have closed and opened. Big surf, thanks to the 30-40 mph offshore winds.

Staying at the Pacific Shores, not sure I'd recommended it. Big rooms but a lot of wasted space. No desk (a little table with 2 worn chairs) and a toilet right next to the wall and below the towel rack. A bit claustrophobic (sigh), but maybe I'm nitpicking. A nice view from the porch of the rock and close to the embarcadero, but over priced. $58 a night weekdays, 165 on Saturdays. I guess that's standard, but.

I had planned on a hiking day today, but with the winds continuing today in the 40 to 50 mph I decided to check out Paso Robles instead. I'd never really spent any time in the downtown area in my past trips here but I saw that there were several tasting rooms for small wineries in the the central downtown area.

A vibrant downtown with a mixed of new and old space, lots of restaurants and shops, I liked the fact that the town retained the small town vibe. At 31,000 people Paso isn't all that big despite the wealth of the wineries surrounding it

All, and I do mean All, of the tasting rooms downtown were closed (I assume because of off season and being a weekday), so I picked up a wine trail map and decided to go to places that I'd never been to.

Downtown Paso Robles. Free parking, no time limit.

Central square in Paso Robles with the old library building in the background.

My first choice was Calcareous Winery. A terrific view from the tasting room. Much like Daou. Some very tasty wines. I bought a Cab and a Chardonnay. Met a nice guy working in the tasting room. Phillipe. Originally from France but had live in the states since he was a kid. He worked at a dude ranch near Meeker for 10 years so we had that Colorado Connection.

Looking east towards Templeton from Calcareous.

I also stopped at Treana. Bill Stout had turned me on to their Cab when I returned from Tahiti this year so I just thought I'd do a sample and take a pic. Wrong. A case later I was out the door. To my credit, only half of it is mine. The other half is Sallies.

Here's a sunset pic of the rock from the motel.

Have fun. More tomorrow.