THE LONELY ROAD

On the way to Springville

DATE:  Thurs, Oct. 27, 2011
HOME: Springville, ca  Springville Inn
DISTANCE: 35 miles
ALTITUDE:  2600 ft gained
WEATHER: perfect
NARRATIVE:
After a fabulous breakfast at our B&B we got on the road around 9:30.  What a beautiful ride it was today.  No more than a dozen cars and a handful of motorcycles did we see all day long, not a single store, and few houses – but lots of cattle – this is ranching country!  Wonderful, lonely roads to ride with with hills, oaks, grasses and large rock out croppings.  While this is desert country this time of year the sun is low, casting shadows on the hills, which soften them.  We had a nice lunch just before our big climb to the top of the mountain, which zigzagged up at a mostly 5-7% grade.  Only occasionally did it go higher.  Once up, it was a nice 10 mile downhill to Springville.

Springville Inn, Springville, CA

The Springville Inn:  Built in 1911 it’s the cornerstone of this town, which, at first glance, looks like a bustling town – nicely restored houses, new sidewalks, newly paved streets.  The first sign that anything was wrong was our Inn – big FOR SALE signs outside.  The owner is still keeping the motel open, but this was a destination hotel – nice banquet rooms, a high end restaurant with lots of outside seating.  And our room had recently been remodeled and was very nice.  The owner said the recession hit them big – they are this little out of the way town and people stopped coming.  We thought how sad it was – she had put her heart and soul into refurbishing the place (opened in 1998), and now she has to sell it, but no one is buying yet.
Then we took a walk along main street and found a good number of stores closed down.  One woman said that the valley had 25% unemployment with lots and lots of homes in foreclosure.