Back To San Jose

Up To King City

Stables Inn business card

I get a late checkout until noon as it’s a short drive to San Jose today. I try and catch up on my diary during the morning.

It’s partly cloudy leaving Paso Robles at 12.15 pm and 73º F / 23º C. I’ve deliberately chosen a longer route today, partly to avoid just blasting up Highway 101. I use that road at the start but turn off at King City onto Bitterwater Road. This takes me to CA-25 N which provides some great driving, which has been sorely lacking this trip. Airline Highway, as it is known, winds and climbs through some hills (name unknown) with an undulating road surface.

It was going great until someone pulls out of a side road about half a mile ahead of me. There are no overtaking places on the road and the idiot ahead of me, when I quickly catch him up, is going about as slow as possible. The second half of what could have been an epic drive is curtailed.

CA-25 N descends out of the hills and becomes flat and arrow-straight. This means I can finally overtake the slow driver in front of me but sadly the road has become a dead duck. Maps then advises a re-route to avoid some problem ahead. I’m sent onto CA-156 and towards a town called San Juan Bautista. I really have no idea where it is taking me other than San Jose is still my final destination. On the outskirts I’m directed off CA-156 on to some roads through fields growing crops, then over Hwy 101 and onto CA-129 W.

Back on PCH

When I look it up later this was a serious detour, must have been a hell of problem on CA-25 or perhaps Hwy 101 (more likely), which was to finally take me into San Jose. The weather had changed and by 2.30 pm it is completely clouded over and dropped to 67º F / 20º C.

CA-129 drops me on CA-1 N, the Pacific Coast Highway just south of Santa Cruz. I decide against visiting the sea front again as time is moving on. The cloud cover means it wouldn’t be a great vista anyway.

Further north there is a right turn onto CA-17 N. This is a wicked road that I’ve driven before, full of 40/45 mph curves, with climbs and descents all along the way. I’m convinced the lanes are narrower than other roads. Everyone seems to want to drive it fast though. No wonder I often read about car smashes on CA-17.

As I descend from the Santa Cruz Mountains down into San Jose, the sky clears. Entering San Jose it is bright and sunny again but still only 75º F / 24º C. I stop at a Safeway to buy my last two breakfasts and then motor on to the Hotel de Anza. It’s much later than planned at 4.45 pm.

I last stayed here in 2019 and had planned to again last year. But after booking a room they cancelled it in August – and all reservations until November. They closed the whole hotel, I believe because the hotel had been sold, and I’m guessing the new owners wanted to do some refurbishments.

After check-in I use the San Pedro Market Parking Garage again to self-park. It is undergoing renovations and a lot of the entrances and exits are closed. It was a bit of a nightmare to navigate.

Poor House Bistro Revisited

Pearl Alley Band

Later I leave the hotel at 7.30 pm and walk five minutes to Poor House Bistro. I finally get to see a band play in the new location. Pearl Alley Band are pretty good. Mostly covers, including Gimme Shelter and Stay With Me, but also some originals. They’ve obviously paid their dues – the lead singer said they’d been going for 25 years – and they are a tight five piece unit. The links on the songs are to short YouTube videos of the band.

Sadly of course in the new location the Bistro closes even earlier than the old place, at 9 pm. So afterwards I walked back to N San Pedro St and try out Firehouse No. 1 Gastropub. All of the other bars around the San Pedro area put on DJs after 9 pm on Saturdays.

But the Firehouse closes at 10 pm, which I knew, but is already dead as a dodo at 9.20 pm. There’s also no draught beer, which is a disappointment. The can of IPA I had wasn’t very good either. When I ask why the bar closes at 10 pm on a Saturday, he has no idea and disagrees with it. All the other bars stay open until 2 am: “It’s crazy”, he says.

After finishing my beer, I depart. I have a cold Sierra Nevada beer in my fridge back at the hotel. I drink that whilst doing more diary. Looks like I’ll have to find another Saturday night bar post-Bistro when I return to San Jose.