We got up later and had a leisurely morning. Around 11 PM last night, it started to rain steadily, but the winds were strong and gusty. It was so gusty that the bus actually moved with each gust. It continued like this for quite awhile and I laid there thinking that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but I guess I did. . .eventually. When we got up this morning, it was hazy and there was a threat of rain for later in the day. I decided to do some laundry and some other indoor chores while we waited to see what the rain would do. I cut my own bangs and gave Bob a haircut. For those 25 years we traveled by boat, we had to be self-sufficient, so I learned how to trim my own hair, give Bob a haircut, and groom the dog. We’ve continued to do those things when we travel for extended periods of time. Today, we wanted to visit a winery in town, but still be able to sit out in the courtyard and enjoy the samples. It wouldn’t be very pleasant in the rain, so we put that on hold for awhile. The rain kept threatening all morning, but there seemed to be a break in the weather finally around 2:30. I put my last load of wash in the dryer and we decided to go into town. It even sprinkled on the windshield as we made the drive, but once we got to town there was nothing. The radar showed some heavy storms blowing up near San Antonio, but they missed us. I googled “the best wineries in Fredericksburg” and the Pontotoc Vineyard Weingarten (area near a vineyard) came up as #1.
We had walked past it yesterday and never knew it was there. The Weingarten is in a quaint cottage with an authentic weinkeller (wine cellar) in a stone-walled courtyard. We even walked down into the wine cellar to check it out.
I ordered a glass of Sangria de Tempranvillo. It was delicious!
We sat inside and chatted with the wine “baristas” about the history of the owners of the winery and where the grapes are grown.
They are grown 45 minutes north of Fredericksburg in the “Hill Country” community of Pontotoc. It is located in the terroir (an area that encompasses all of the factors that go into producing wine grapes–climate, soil, elevation) of the Llano Uplift area that has fertile red sand soil in a high valley surrounded by pink granite outcroppings and sandstone hills on a farm founded in 1872. Pontotoc means “Land of Hanging Grapes”. One of the wine “baristas” was from Bavaria and he gave us some inside info about where to get the best German beer. More customers arrived to buy some of their wine and do some sampling, so we moved outside to the courtyard. The sun had come out and it was so pleasant to sit there sipping my sangria.
This cool tree was growing in the courtyard and reminded me of Florida. Our neighbor has one like this in his front yard back home, but not quite that big.
We met and chatted with some other RVers from our campground who came in to enjoy some sangria as well.
We left there about 3:30 to return to the campground with a bottle of the sangria.
It was still sunny when we got back, so we sat outside with Auggie. The campground had really filled up while we were gone.
After about 30 minutes, we heard thunder and dark clouds had moved in. The wind picked up, so we decided it was time to head inside. The rain soon followed and lasted for about an hour.
For dinner, Bob made lobster rolls with lobster that we got in our Butcher Box gift at Christmas. They were so good!
We took our walk as the sun was setting to see all the new campers that had arrived today. A couple more RVers came in as we finished our walk.
It was a clear night for a change, except for this one cloud that looked very cool in the evening sky!
As the sun set even further, it cast a beautiful red-orange glow on the same cloud. How beautiful!
We had an enjoyable day and accomplished a lot even though the weather didn’t always cooperate. The weather should be good tomorrow for our road trip to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.