Innroads Into the Motherlode

(Originally published in 2014...)

It's been a hell of a year so far on the day-job front. My boss went on a vacation that he never returned from (he died in the Phillipines), throwing our IT department into chaos. Then, our most competent tech took a transfer to Denver and now we're down by two with probably a six month wait...at least...to replace them.

I delayed any time off during the depths of our office turmoil and decided to take a few extra days at Memorial Day to get my mind off of it.

To tell the truth, I was burned out. I wasn't even looking forward to the trip, it seemed like more work then just sitting at home with a cooler of beer and puttering around the garden. Not that I told Letty and Tim any of this, I didn't want to put a damper on the travel for them. Besides, Tim was looking forward to seeing a new stadium and what will probably be the only baseball game we go to this year.

So off we went.  San Francisco was crazily crowded...although La Rocca's Corner was a whiskey-soaked oasis in the middle of it...and the Oakland Coliseum was an outdated dump but the team is on fire and the game was great.

It was a tightly timed drive to the Jelly Belly factory, then a more leisurely commute across the Delta until we hit the incongruously high speed limit, two lane Highway 124 in Ione (65 MPH, used to be 70) where we shot up quickly to the highway of gold, Highway 49, just outside of Drytown.

Five minutes later, we're pulling into the driveway of the Shenandoah Inn in tiny Plymouth, California.

Yes, we've been up here in Amador County countless times but we usually stay 45 minutes way in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova...the closest place where we can get a really good and inexpensive suite. This time, we decided on this mom 'n pop motel on the side of the highway based on a quick drop-in we did last year to inspect the accessible rooms.

There are two here, both with King size beds, a sofa (no sofabed), low-step bathtubs with transfer chairs and shower-on-a-hose, and a view to die for of the Shenandoah Valley wine country.

Out back, there's a pool, spa, two barbecues, picnic tables, and a pool lift. It even works!

While it's not quite perfect...no roll-in shower and we'll have to squeeze a rollaway bed in for Tim...it'll be adequate.

It's time to unpack.  I know my wife is going to say "only two nights? I wish we could have one more day up here," so I called Ken...the owner...ahead of time and extended it to three so I can surprise her.

I'm going to head over to Main Street and pick up a pizza from the only restarant in town that is still open at this time of 8:15pm.  We'll catch up tomorrow and start exploring.

Darryl
Copyright 2014 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Pictures by Letty Musick
Copyright 2014 - All Rights Reserved