Hello, and welcome to our world

Good morning. I am beginning this journey with a bit of trepidation but excitement as well. I have wanted to do this type of blog for a while and I hope to keep up with posting. My wonderful husband and I wanted an easy way to share our thoughts and adventures with our family and friends as well as a way to highlight his wonderful photographic talent.

As you can tell from the title, we love to travel and we love visiting vineyards and wineries - especially boutique wineries - wonderful little spots where personal passion finds expression in a commercial venture.

Please forgive, up front, the mixing of me, my with us, our. After 23 fabulous years of marriage (we've been together for almost 26 years!) the bounderies are pleasantly blurred.

Speaking of 23 years, I'll begin this inaugural post with our anniversary trip to St. Louis. For a bit of foundation, you should know this was a spontaneous trip - usually the best ones are. We had been planning a motorcycle trip to southwestern Colorado or, if the weather was bad, we'd change to a motorcycle trip around eastern Oklahoma. Bike trips require constant weather monitoring - we don't mind riding in the rain but aren't really comfortable with torrential rain, hail, lightning, etc... I know I may hear from someone that a "real" biker scoffs at the weather but those comments usually come from (a) someone who only rides to a restaurant on Wednesday nights, or (b) someone with a death wish. We are careful because we want to live to ride another day!

All the weather sites showed torrential rain for many days here in Oklahoma and in Colorado so, plan D - drive somewhere where the sun is shining - came into play. We quickly rethought our packing, jumped in the GT and took off for Missouri. Just a quick note about my sweet mom - she plays along with our sponantiety - we asked her to care for our animals for anywhere from 1 day to 10 days and that we'd let her know how long just before we left. We called her from the road... A quick stop at Starbucks for some roadtrip caffene and we were off. I wish we had been able to take a photo of the sunrise - but it was raining on the turnpike - the sunrise was that wonderful mixture of rain, sun, clouds and color that takes one's breath away.

A quick technology note - we just traded in Matt's Silver Pontiac Grand Am (the Smart Buy was up) for a new/old faithful - a black 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix GT. Soooo much fun to drive! And, this one has XM Radio - the first 3 months free. We aren't sure if we'd pay for it, but it was a great addition to our trip - lots of music, comedy, weather, etc... We'll let you know what we think about the service by the time the free months are up. (One guess who gets to drive this one, now...)

We left the rain clouds in Oklahoma and left the interstate for the wine country at Cuba, MO. This was the first of a series of really! fun road - beautiful scenery with many twists and turns. We drove to Hermann, MO, on the banks of the Missouri river. It was settled in 1837 by 17 German immigrants who thought the land looked like the Rhine Valley in Germany. If you ever get a chance to go, take the time - it really is a beautiful place. www.hermannmo.info We toured the Stone Hill Winery www.stonehillwinery.com - originally opened in the mid 1800's. Not a little mom & pop operation but the tour was great. We bought some wine and gifts then crossed the Missouri River heading toward Defiance.

A few words about Highway 94 - wow! gasp! squeal! - we are definately bringing our bikes up here just so we can ride this road! It was so much fun!

This area is so full of historical places and events that it would take many weeks to hit them all. Because it was getting late, we drove on into St. Charles to spend the night - Red Roof Inns are a practical, clean, relatively inexpensive place to stay - $52.00 for a non-smoking queen. The words are correct but the phrase does conjure up a rather odd mental picture.

The next morning, early, we drove back to Defiance to see the Daniel Boone Home & Booneville. Again, a great place - we took quite a few photos and went on a tour. It never ceases to amaze me what people can accomplish when they put their minds to it. Daniel didn't come to Missouri until he was about 65 years old - very old at that time - and with a few other settlers how came with him from Kentucky, they built a little village on a beautiful piece of land. Matt, of course, took the photos I am uploading, but you can learn more (always the teacher) at the site I've listed. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7109/

From there, we drove back to St. Charles and spent several hours touring the downtown area. It was from here that Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery launched their historic trip. Again, this area is so rich one is hard pressed to end the time here. So many of the buildings were built in the 1700's and 1800's and have been lovingly restored. But, we had decided we would go to the Arch this trip so we headed for St. Louis.

St. Louis brings up conflicting feelings for me. It is a beautiful city with a very seemy underbelly that isn't always hidden. I feel confident in my ability to sense the safety of an area - and we try hard not to be too obviously tourists. It isn't one of my favorite cities but we are determined to be open-minded and adventurous. After checking into the Hampton Inn right across from the Edward Jones Center, we decide to take a drive down to the river and LaClede's Landing. Again, we get the feeling of something bubbling just under the surface - something we don't want to see. Granted, the only other time I'd stopped in St. Louis, we were approached by some very tenacious panhandlers and there didn't seem to be a strong law enforcement presence but, compared with other large cities, this just didn't seem like a place in which one could relax and enjoy - at least at night... We eventually parked in an area where there were other people - some families - and went to find some dinner. It is sad, really, that this incredible historic district is so unsettled. Many larger cities have vibrant downtowns on any given day. This seems to be a downtown entertainment district built on gambling and professional sports. If there aren't any games, the only one's downtown are those getting valet parking at the casinos...
We did have a Chicago Style Pizza and we visited with a waitress who told us about another district (St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods like Chicago or New Orleans) - Soulard. We would go there the next day. After dinner we drove back to our hotel with its secured parking garage and discussed how wonderful the LaClede Landing could be if a large number of 'someones' cared to love it.

This is enough for now. I'll post about the Arch and the beautiful Soulard later. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment...