Chose Your Traveling Fiends Wisely – Even In Paso Robles
I feel sorry for my roommate.
She is traveling from Los Angeles to Paso Robles for wine tasting in one of California’s great wine tasting regions.
Paso Robles is known for its robust reds – Pinot Noir in particular – and it is the area featured in the wine-tasting movie Sideways.
So why the heck am I feeling sorry for her!?
Well, it’s all because of whom she is traveling with on this trip.
She is going with a married couple, good friends with both of us. The problem here is that the husband is a heavy drinker, with red wines in particular, and has no shut-off valve. Once he gets going, he literally cannot stop.
This causes his wife to drink heavily to try and keep up with him to mask her frustration, but eventually she gives up and then gets verbal with him causing an uncomfortable situation where you don’t want to be around either one of them.
“You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan…”
– 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
And here they are going to Paso Robles, which not only has wineries but seven or eight wine tasting rooms around its downtown town square, meaning all one has to do is go from door to door to be overwhelmed with wines from the region.
“You’ll be fine,” a mutual friend deadpanned to my roommate. “As long as they don’t drink anything!”
Hahahaha!
Now you may think that situation is challenging enough but there’s more – and this is what could well make the trip to Paso Robles the roadt rip to hell.
Another couple is going along, too.
These people fight all the time. The girlfriend is a complete drama queen who craves attention. She complains her boyfriend doesn’t make enough money (which means he has bought her a 3-series B’mer and not a 5-series), flirts with any other men in the vicinity to get his attention and explodes when he does not jump up in jealousy.
She has been known to create dramatic scenes – in public, at restaurants and at other people’s houses – screaming and acting insane. She’s as volatile as a Hawaiian volcano. And just as likely to explode at any time.
I can completely envision a repeat of that scene in Sideways when the guy went bizzerk in the tasting room. Only worse.
In fact, this just happened a few weeks earlier. The girlfriend completely lost it at the afore-mentioned couple’s apartment. It ruined my roommate’s Saturday night. And yet here she is, going on a multi-day trip with them with endless alcohol in play.
I always tell people that enjoyment of travel can be largely dependent on with whom you travel. A great, fun partner and friends can make it special while the wrong people can turn a dream trip into a nightmare.
The odds of this group even making it to Paso Robles without some type of drama is as thin as a wafer in a wine tasting room. It’s a four-hour drive from Los Angeles and with everyone confined in a car, there’s ample opportunities for trouble.
My advice to her has been simple: drink wine and don’t get involved in any of it yourself. And then, drink more wine.
Cheers!
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