A little Wine and a Song!

The weekend of 4/23/21 landed us in Vineyard lands! Two Harvest Host stays: one highlighted by a wonderful blues singer and another by a dinner extraordinaire...and then there was WINE! (and notice there is no "H" in wine...)

But first - the drive that got us there. On Rte 20 in Hamburg, NY we passed our first HUMONGOUS WalMart. Karl & I have always referred to it as WaldoMart. So as we passed this monstrosity our separate synchronized utterances were: "WaldoMart on Steroids!"/"WaldoMart Palace!"! There were designated separate entrances with big white pillars at each entrance...(definitely another "we're not in Kansas anymore" moment!)

We ended up veering off of Rte 20 to Rte 5 in Silver Creek, NY to be able to ride alongside beautiful Lake Erie AND a gazillion fields of vineyards! If Karl said "HOLY SHIT!" once, he said it a thousand times. (Well, at least twenty times)...It was quite amazing. Can only imagine what it looks like when they are in bloom*.

*(Author's note: I tried to be a helpful Hannah and look up when that is, but it is wayyyy too involved for this retiree and dependent on the types of grapes being grown, the age/status of the plants etc... But to at least put it in SOME context - there are about 11,000 ACRES of grapes and over 100 vineyards in New York state!! So now Karl's amazement is put in a little more perspective...)

Rte 5 brought us through Pennsylvania and into Ohio and the view along Lake Erie was SPECTACULAR! We wished the road wasn't so small so that we could pull off and take some pics but, alas, my action shots as we drove by will have to do. Rte 5 eventually rejoined Rte 20 and within a half hour we were at our next stop.

At Buccia Vineyard I got to partake in a lovely wine tasting; my go-to way of supporting each winery without buying a bottle of wine which would take up too much room in the trailer...After a nice walk around their small vineyard (which they are presently putting mega effort into expanding) we had dinner in the trailer and then returned to the pavilion area for entertainment. We realized we could've had a yummy dinner there as well, but we are working on eating all the frozen cooked food we brought with us from our (previously owned) house... The singer was adorable and perfect for the venue. Blues and folk music and a lot of his own original songs. My favorite was entitled "Call a Guy" inspired by an episode of Two & 1/2 Men where one of the characters tried to fix something on his own and should've "called a guy"! It was clever and catchy - not to mention that my hubby could've been "the guy" to be called in every verse!

4/24

We took Rte 20 the whole (long) way today. Felt a little guilty for going off of it yesterday, but the view was totally worth it and embraced the whole purpose of the trip of seeing our states! We passed by Lake Erie College and then the Lake County Fairgrounds (which was bustling with activity on this 63degree sunny day). For the record, though we haven't been surprised by the number of Waldo-Marts or McDonalds that we've seen, we HAVE been surprised by the amount of Aldi's and DQ's along the way...

4/25

I interrupt your friendly neighborhood travel blog for un unpaid advertisement for our best find to date: Sandy Ridge Vineyards & Mercantile. We had planned to stay overnight at a nearby winery but the space to park our trailer was pretty small. So Karl perused our trusty Harvest Host app and found this GEM! We had our family afternoon walk in the fields and after giving Penny some "mood music" in the trailer went indoors for dinner. YUUUMM!!! The ambiance and decor were wonderful. They had both beer AND wine (and tea for my hubby) and the food was exquisite!Dessert was one of the highlights. I went with the chef's special of a warm nut torte (pecans, pistachios and almonds) topped with vanilla bean ice cream and Karl had the carrot cake. Our waitress was wondering if we were "from around here" because the carrot cake had just been featured on a local news program...AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN!!! It was somewhat of a deconstructed carrot cake and served with lovely sugared carrots and plops of whip cream and a whipped cream cheese frosting. Every damn bit was an adventure and it was DELICIOSO!!!