We bought a 1999 Pontiac Montana minivan on Friday, so today we decided to take a road trip. We've lived in southwest Indiana for a couple of years, about 30 miles from the Illinois border, but we've never gone to Illinois, so we drove out I-64 west. The drive was pretty nice, a lot of flat country. At least I think it was nice, I slept a lot of the way.
Our first stop was at Genkota winery. It was a rustic wood building, and inside we got to try samples of their various wines. They were out of the one I really wanted to try, Thunder Chicken, an apple wine. We bought a bottle of Catawba, a rose that was semi-sweet. I guess I should say that I'm not a wine snob. I hate 'dry' wines. That just means they're not sweet. Sweet is better.
The first winery had a brochure that listed South Illinois wineries, and there was another winery, Pheasant Hollow, that was only 30 or 40 miles down the road, south on I-57. So off we went. We kept driving and didn't see it, but we did see a sign for an Adult superstore. We said that if we didn't find the winery we'd go to the Adult store, where they had a 'buy 2, get 1 free' deal on DVDs. A little while later we saw a sign for the winery, so the Adult store woud have to wait for another weekend.
This one was even further off the road, and more rustic. We drove down a narrow gravel road about 100 yards and came to a clearing where an old wooden building stood. We went inside, and it was open. There was a rack of t-shirts, with a design with a bunch of grapes, and the words, "Pick Me, Squeeze Me, Make Me Wine!". I bought one for my wife. We sampled their blackberry/blueberry wine, and their raspberry wine, and bought a bottle of both.
We drove back, going north to I-64, then east until we crossed the Indiana state line. A little ways in I decided to head south, so we took some of the back roads back to Evansville.
Back in Evansville, we ate at the Golden Corral, a buffet chain restaurant. We ran into a friend from the swinger's club we go to about 30 miles north of here. She's a stripper at a local strip club. Small world.
It's been a good Sunday. I can see the van is going to do well on trips, so we'll have to take some weekend trips to St Louis and Louisville and Indianapolis. I can't wait.
