Charlie
The Ahwahnee Hotel ~ Yosemite National Park
October 2012
The Basil Hayden Story
It was a rainy morning and rather than
hunker down in our cabin, we decided to take a little walk…it wasn’t raining
very hard and we did have our jackets!
Yosemite
Falls had water again. North Dome was shrouded in strips of puffy clouds. Rain
drops danced in the puddles along the road. Soon, it was lunch time. We were
near the Ahwahnee Hotel and decided to head on over.
We
put our names in and were told it would be about 15 minutes. Charlie suggested that
we wait in the bar. The dining room host handed Charlie one of those automated
reservation pagers and we walked to the other side of the lobby. The tables were full but there were several
seats at the bar.
I
had just decided on the house chardonnay (of course!). Suddenly, Charlie
blurted out “Basil Hayden!” in a rather loud voice. I looked at him and said,
“What?” “Basil Hayden!!” Charlie replied. “Who is Basil Hayden?” I asked.
“Deadwood!!! It’s from the Deadwood series!” Still puzzled, I looked at him,
waiting for more info. “They drank Basil Hayden in the series! I thought they
made it up! But, it’s right there on the shelf!” he said, pointing to the
bottle. Well, now! He must order up a
Basil Hayden on the rocks! (You think?). And he did. Shortly after the drinks were served, our
mystic pager went off and we left for the dining room.
We
waited at the desk to be seated. Charlie was beside himself having found this
new whiskey. He was so enjoying it. We were escorted to our table. We settled
in after peeling off our soggy jackets. We had just finished our drinks when our server appeared. “Do you want another drink?” he asked, rather annoyed that he had to
serve two slightly wet and messy guests. We looked at each other and I asked
for another wine. “I’ll have a Basil Hayden on the rocks, please.” Charlie
replied. A pregnant pause ensued ~ the server stared at Charlie in disbelief and then responded with a rambunctious (and an obvious shift in attitude). “Yes, sir! Another Basil Hayden on the rocks!!! Will this be a
room charge, sir?” Charlie said no, that we would be paying cash. The server
then scurried off to get our drinks.
And so began the exploration of whiskies and bourbons.....more to follow,
I'm willing to bet!