Campbells - Warren, IN (July 1 - 4)

We spent the 4th of July holiday with our friends, Jim and Lois Campbell in their home town of Warren, IN. We had a nice camping spot (water & electric) behind the “Big” House at the Heritage Point Health Care Facility in the employees’ parking lot, which was very close to Jim & Lois’s house in the Dogwood Glen Villas http://www.ummh.org/. They drove us around Huntington County where they both grew up and showed us their old stomping grounds. It was fun reliving some of their memories of their early years! We had our fill of huge pork tenderloin sandwiches and really enjoyed small town America festivities—great fireworks in the park, antique tractor show with homemade ice cream and blackberry pie and a parade on the 4th.

Jim & Chuck standing by a 1950 John Deere B tractor like the one Chuck used to drive on the farm where he grew up.

Rumely Oil Pull Tractor

Old John Deere 1-horse power stationary engine used to make homemade ice cream

Here are some pictures that we took of the parade:

NOTE: While here in Indiana, I learned a new saying: The corn crops should be “knee high by the 4th of July”, and it was.

4 - Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally (Cont.)

The last day of the rally found us gathering for coffee and pastries about 9:00 a.m. and talking about all of the wineries and restaurants that we had visited the previous days. We kind of agreed that it was too many wineries to visit in 3 days time, that visiting just 2 wineries a day would have been more enjoyable and just one meal out each day (lunch or dinner) would have been good too.

Did you know that there are 111 wineries/vineyards in Virginia? And we've only visited 8 of them. I'm sure future Gourmand rallies will take us to more of them!

3 - Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally (Cont.)

Today was the 3rd full day of the Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally and we visited 3 wineries, had a picnic lunch at the King Family Vineyard and ate dinner at an Italian restaurant--another very busy eating and drinking day!

Afton Mountain Vineyards, Afton http://www.aftonmountainvineyards.com/

Wine Tasting at Afton Vineyards

King Family Vineyards, Crozet www.kingfamilyvineyards.com/


Here is a member of the King Family explaining about making the different wines.

We shared a picnic lunch with Larry and Mem Halstead and this was our view of the mountians at the King Family Winery.

White Hall Vineyards, White Hall http://www.whitehallvineyards.com/

The manager at White Hall gave us a very interesting tour of the vineyards and the winery, explaining about the different vines, the de-stemming machine, and aging red wine in oak barrels. We left there with a bottle of 2006 Sugar Ridge White and a bottle of 2006 Gewurztraminer (strong lemon aromas precede bouquets of roses and orange blossoms with a powerful finish of spicy cloves).

This year's crop of White Hall grapes ripening on the vine.

D'Ambolas (Italian Restaurant), Afton www.dambolas.com/




Chuck had veal parisagn and I had shrimp scampi. Chuck's was good, but mine lacked garlic and was very bland. Don't know if I'd go here again. The service was extremely slow and they knew we were coming!

2 - Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally (Cont.)

Today was the second full day of the Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally and about 22 of us visited 3 wineries and ate at two very nice restaurants--a very busy eating and drinking day!

Burnley Vineyards, Barboursville, VA http://www.burnleywines.com/

Burnley Vineyards is one of the oldest Vineyards in the Monticello Viticultural Area. They have 31 acres of vineyards - Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Orange Muscat, Muscat Blanc, Chambourcin, Vidal and Norton. Burnley Vineyards is a family operation. Lee Reeder, pictured below, is the winemaker. This winery experience was by far the most enjoyable as far as information and all of the time that Lee spent with us answering questions about wine making.

Lee serving his wines

Cooper - He even has his own wine "Dog Gone Red" and we bought 2 bottles! Cooper's wine is made from Chambourcin and Norton grapes. Norton grapes were developed in Richmond, VA around 1820 and was the main grape in Early Virginia wines. It is a semi-dry red wine, created especially for someone just starting to enjoy red wine. It is fruity and soft, with a hint of sweetness--just like Cooper.

Pomme (French Restaurant), Gordonsville, VA http://pommeparties.com/index.html

The Gourmands' had lunch at Pomme and I highly recommend it. I had an asparagus omelet, yummy.

Horton Cellars Winery, Gordonsville, VA www.hvwine.com/

These were the red wines that we got to taste--but just a sip!

Barboursville Vineyard, Barboursville, VA http://www.barboursvillewine.net/








Three Notch'd Grill, Crozet, VA www.threenotchedgrill.com/

Now this restaurant is MORE than a grill and tops my list of places to go back to for more! I had sea scallops!

Eastern Gourmands VA Wineries Rally (6/8-12/2008)

This was the 1st rally that we have attended with the Eastern Gourmands, a relatively new FMCA Chapter. We camped at the Misty Mountain Campground http://www.mistycamp.com/ in Crozet, VA (near Charlottesville). We visited 8 different wineries and had wine tasting at all of them and went on winery tours at several of them. We really learned alot about how wine is made.

Kluge Estate Winery and Vinyard

On Monday, we visited the Kluge Estate Winery and Vinyard http://www.klugeestateonline.com/ where Chuck and I shared a flight of 6 different wines and shared a platter of 6 different cheeses with Larry & Mem Halstead, each complemented the 6 different wines that we were tasting.

Kluge Winery Tasting (Larry & Mem Halstead and Chuck)

Flight of 6 wines with cheese pairings (we started with the cheese to the right of the apricots):

*Kluge Estate SP Blanc de Blancs 2004 - Ripe apple and pear flavor with Prima Donna Cheese - Netherland Cow Hard Cheese
*Albemarle Viognier 2006 - Floral and mature exotic fruits flavor with Camembert Cheese - U.S. Cow Soft Cheese (Very Good Cheese)
*Albemarle Rose 2006 - Floral, fresh berries, white peach, cherry and raspberry notes and delicate licorice, vanilla and roast almond accents with Piave Cheese - Italy Cow Hard Cheese (Very Good Wine)
*Albemarle Simply Red 2004 - Bordeaux-style red blend with velvety tannins with Humboldt Fog Cheese - U.S. Goat Soft Cheese (lemony taste)
*Kluge Estate New World Red 2004 - Bordeaux-style, ruby red, full-bodied and spicy with Idiazabel Cheese - Spain Sheep Semi-Firm (Very Good Wine)
*Kluge Estate Cru, Aperitif - refreshing with pear, white peach, and citrus flavors with Smokey Oregon Blue Cheese - U.S. Cow Blue (smokey flavor) (Very Very Good Wine)

Michie Tavern

We ate lunch at the Ordinary at the Michie Tavern http://www.michietavern.com/ nearby. This Tavern was built about 1784 and is near Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. They serve fried chicken, stewed tomatoes, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn bread--yum!

Jefferson Vineyards

After lunch, we toured the Jefferson Vineyards Winery http://www.jeffersonvineyards.com/ where we watched a contract bottling company bottle, label and box their wine. After, we tasted about 6 different wines. My favorite was their Viognier '07. All of the wineries said that 2007 was a very good year for growing grapes in Virginia--it was very dry and HOT! Viognier is a dry white wine with aromas of honeysuckle, apricot and pineapple.

The day ended with Happy Hour and grilled chicken, portabella mushrooms, baked beans and hamburgers cooked on the grill.

Mon, Oct 15th - Home at Last

We drove from Crossville, TN, about 90 miles west of Knoxville, to Stafford, VA today and got home about 6:30 p.m. We are glad to be home--at least for a little while. We head to FL the middle of Dec!

I would have loved to have had time to add more pictures and information about all of the things that we have seen and done, BUT I've just run out of time! So until the next trip--so long and hope you have enjoyed our "Westward Ho" trip as much as we have!

Sun, Oct 14th - Bean Pot Campground, Crossville, TN

We checked into the campground early today--around 11:30 and then headed out to see what Crossville, TN was like. We had been looking into "The Gardens" community there. See http://www.gardensrvvillage.com/ . It's a unique retirement community with duplexes that have RV garages attached to the houses. Wish they had a community like it in Virginia!

This is just the right side of the duplex.

Here's another one that was for sale. The size is deceiving because the house is so deep vice being long. This one had a walkout room in the basement and had about 2200 square feet of space.

http://www.beanpotcampground.net/ Bean Pot Campground