Category: Harvest Host stops

4/7/23

Todays adventure started in the rain and thunder, packing up and hooking up the car in the midst of it. After filling up the RV with 60 gallons of gas (at $3.17/gallon😊) we headed southwest on I-26 to 85 towards Atlanta. It was raining pretty good for the first hour. The clouds were hanging low on the mountains and the trees were bright green. After an hour the weather subsided and the sun appeared. Yay! My turn to drive 😉.

Be careful what you wish for… I got traffic for 2 hours and plenty of numb sculls out there around Atlanta. It’s a bit nerve wracking and tiring. I was very happy when Paul took over for the last 2 hours and got us to our Harvest Host, Hodges Vineyards in Camp Hill, Alabama. We were greeted by a lovely woman and we’re guided to our very level cement pad with full hook ups … free!

On the way here, we saw our first armadillo! Unfortunately it was on the side of the road, belly up but it was an armadillo… and we saw it, so it counts! 😉

Once we set up, we bought a glass of wine and sat on the patio over looking the pond. Dinner and a stroll around the grounds completed the day,

Here are some pictures from the winery.

320 miles today but it took 7 hours due to the rain and traffic around Atlanta. States today included NC, SC, GA, AL. We added one more state to the RV map, Alabama!
Tomorrow we head to New Orleans for 3 days.

(I am posting this as we ride along and my curser is bouncing).As we leave Asheville, we are headed to West Virginia and then home. We thought we would stop for some fireworks in North Carolina but found out they are illegal in NC. Our ride was through the Blue Ridge Mountains then over the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee where we stocked up at the Fireworks Supermarket in Bountville, TN. Score! As we rode through the rolling mountains it struck me how beautiful they were spotted with farms and little towns tucked into the valley floor. Going over the Appalachian mountains in the RV made me feel like we were on the “Little Engine that Could”. After stopping at the gas station, I calculated that we got 7.1 miles per gallon on the mountain roads :(.

We have been very lucky with the weather on our driving days. We have been on the east side of a string of thunderstorms all day and as we approach our destination today, 45 minutes out, it started to rain…just enough to wash the bugs off the massive windshield! As we approached New River Gorge, the fog started rolling in but really only in the valleys and river beds. As we wind through the interstate, the fog just reached out over the guide rails like fingers trying to touch the cars.

We got off the interstate and stepped onto a windy 1 ½ lane road taking us to Kirkwood Winery/Isaiah Morgan Distillery. We were greeted by 2 “good ole boys” who seemed happy to have someone to talk to. We got the history of the area, floods that ravished the town and some background of the men. We are definitely in the hills of West Virginia. As usual, we were greeted with southern hospitality and they were happy to share some of their local wines and Bourbon whiskey. Wines included lots of fruit wine, dandelion wine, ginseng wine and ramp wine (made from local ramps which taste like sweet onion wine). Paul chose to sample the Bourbon, Corn Shine and Rye Whiskey…guess what we purchased!

Today we completed the wish list by purchasing fireworks and moonshine! After 2 hours, they showed us where to park and we settled down for the night. We are dry camping tonight (no water, power or sewer) and thankfully we are self sufficient in these situations. Paul did all the driving today so he was glad to have dinner and chill watching a movie I had downloaded on the iPad last week. Storms rolled through the area all evening and we woke to another sunny travel day. Take me home, country roads….
287 miles today

We sadly left our friends in Camp Cloverleaf this morning. We got to say goodbye to Mark last night, who was camping in another park with his pups, and the rest of the crew circled up and bid us a due. Jay and Linda were the team leaders and hosted the farewell dinner last night. Good food and great fellowship all around! Bruce and Carol were our wheels for the 2 weeks, taking us back and forth to the worksite, stopping at the store and out to dinner. Much appreciated company 🙂   Dave, Sandy, Joan sent us off with hugs… I think we would have gotten into some mischief with them all if we stayed longer!
As we hop on the road to Georgia, we are excited to soak up some new experiences. I LOVE being on the road, always have, so we are headed to Horse Creek Winery which is one of the Harvest Hosts we planned on investigating. Traveling through Florida is a L-O-N-G drive getting out of the state. Most of our day was in Florida and as we drove along I 75, we could smell the sweetness of the citrus groves. It is an interstate but not as gray and congested as I 95!
We found the winery with no problems, right off exit 41 in Georgia. It has a bistro, event room, wine tasting and some specialty products straight from the farms of Georgia.

We were greeted by the general manager, Mike, and taken care of like family. Paul found a great Cabernet that he liked and I chose the house made wine slushie for my treat (and yes we brought some of both for tasting later). We talked for some time after dinner with Kaylie and Mike and closed the place, no surprise there 😉   They had a fire going out on the patio so we toasted up a bit and did some star gazing before going to the RV for the night. I wish I could have taken a picture of the sky, so many stars. Our Harvest Host experiences have been stellar so far!

They say that hind sight is 20\20 but when you are riding in an RV, with no rear view mirror, you can only plow ahead!
total trip miles 2293 – 350 miles today but it took us 8 hours! I believe we are traveling in a time warp machine but it is not to our benefit!

We left Red Gate Farm Park this morning and headed for Boyton Beach, Florida.  One stop closer to the Keys, YEAH! I have to say too, that the engine light finally went out this morning so we are good to go.  Paul’s guess must have been right, thank goodness.

It was quite the ‘blustery day’, as Pooh Bear would say.  The RV blows around like a sail on a pirate ship, full mast in a storm… maybe not that bad but it gusted so much it blew the screen on the side window off the track and into my lap!   Good thing the wind was coming from the west because if that had happened to the driver, it would not have been a pretty sight. Interstate 95 in Florida is not as exciting as South Carolina (she said facetiously) but it got the job done.   A word for those of you who drive in traffic and ‘inadvertently’ cut in front of trucks (and in our case, RVs) please reconsider your actions.  Do you really want 9 tons of RV fun up your butt?  This seems to be a habit of southern Florida drivers…not cool guys!

Once we arrived at Bedners Farm Market in Boyton Beach, FL, we were greeted by one of the workers on a Kubota that quickly brought us to the back of the farm lot where we parked for the night, nestled among the rows of crops, somewhat protected from the sounds of the highway.  This is one of the Harvest Host partners we connected with and I would rather be on a farm instead of a campground.  Bedners is one of the few remaining farmer owned and operated Farm Markets in South Florida.  Once we set up the RV (it took all of 3 minutes, gotta love it!) we walked to the front of the farm store and found the manager who made us feel welcome.  The manager let us know that there MIGHT be alligators in the canal next to where we are parked, MIGHT BE???  Walking back to our abode, Paul was strolling next to the canal looking for the gators while I walked about 20 feet from him.  I want to be able to see them coming…. Actually I don’t want to see them at all.

We stocked up on some fresh produce and started our evening in Deerfield Beach where we met our nephew and his son for dinner.  Poor Jayden was up way past his bed time but it was really great to see them both and catch up a bit.  After saying good bye to the guys, Paul and I walked along the beach and made some arrangements to see friends as we passed through Pompano Beach tomorrow.  Uber picked us up and took us back to the farm…Literally in the middle of nowhere – the driver probably wondered where the heck we were going as we ducked through the closed gate and walked around to the back of the lot!  Pictures to come tomorrow.

Total trip miles 1356

We left at 9:30am and headed to Clover, VA.  It is kind of like herding cats, getting out of the house and tearing Paul away from home.  We are both excited to go but Paul has the need to say good bye to everyone.  We LOVE our neighborhood and, never fear, we will be back!  In the first hundred miles the “service engine soon” light came on, CRAP :(.  We decided it was because the gas cap wasn’t on tight enough… hopefully we were right!  On to I 95 around Baltimore and Washington DC.  The signs on the road were ridiculous and completely information overload with symbols, EZPass exits (tolls?) and roads merging everywhere.  Even  the GPS freaked out and thought we had gotten off the highway – my response was “just keep driving straight, it will catch up to us”.  And it did!  Too many cups of coffee and water and no place to pull over put Paul and I into a sweat, literally.  Then the light bulb went on and we realized the bathroom was in the back!  SCORE!  First Hidden Gem for the day. Getting gas in VA was the Second Hidden Gem – $2.04!  When you are sitting on an 80 gallon tank, every penny counts!  Finally off I 95 and tooling on route 360 toward Clover, VA.  A lovely divided highway which is luckily underused.  NO traffic, YEAH!

The REAL Hidden Gem is Hunting Creek Winery in Clover, VA.  Wonderful and so completely awesome and really, really AMAZING (did I make that clear?)   It is definitely off the beaten path and well worth the trip to see this place. Paul is a very experienced RV driver, going down the winding narrow roads to the Winery.  At one point I wanted to go in the back so I didn’t have to “white-knuckle it” but we made it unscathed.  (I might mention here that Paul took the wheel of our rental car in Ireland, landing in Dublin, sleep deprived, driving on the “wrong” side of the road in the “wrong” side of the car with a left handed stick shift…and we did make it to the hotel).  Any-who, the owners of the winery, Milt and Sandy, welcomed us with open arms and offered us a private wine tasting in their new tasting room.  Barrels of wine fermenting in the same room as the tasting bar and a unique feature wall made with reclaimed wood from Milt’s father’s barn.  So cool.  The wines were mostly dry reds and if you know Paul,  he was in heaven.  I like Petit Verdot and have not seen it anywhere except in California…Hunting Creek makes their own Petit Verdot and let us taste the 2010, which was out of this world.  Milt even took some wines from the barrel and blended their port before our eyes.  It was really flavorful, not syrupy like some ports I have tasted, Just a party in your mouth!  Everything we tasted, we loved.  Milt and Sandy were so wonderful and I am very pleased we got to meet them through the Harvest Hosts website.  This area is also one of the very few “dark skies” where we could see tons of stars and constellations.  It was truly a magical evening… we went back to the RV and put on some Amos Lee and did a little dancing (first time in the RV)  🙂

411 Miles