One last day

Darla and I left the Shawnee area Sunday morning, stopping in Edwardsville on the way back to get some pumpkins to decorate her front porch for fall.

Darla surprised me by getting me this Shawnee Hills Wine Trail T-shirt. She got one for herself too so we can be twins if the mood strikes us.

The back has logos of all the various wineries. We visited six of them. On the drive back to her house we started brainstorming next year's girls trip - Route 66 from St. Louis westward? Bentonville, Ark.? Memphis? Cape Girardeau, Mo.? New Orleans? Georgia? Maybe a route that hits a few of the towns?

Darla made a yummy taco salad for dinner and then Seymour finally came out of the bedroom and started sniffing around my things. He had been staying in their bedroom to hide from me but even played with me a bit.

I'd say this holds true.

Giant City and more wineries

Our first stop on Saturday was Giant City Visitors Center.

This quilt is basically a test of all of the state "official" things.

Good thing they had a key next to it. Who even knew we had an official state pet? It's a rescue animal.

We wanted to walk around the Giant City rocks but it was just too hot. Instead, we went to the Giant City Lodge, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

How pretty is this? Look at those stone arches. From there we went to Makanda where they were having a honey festival. Parking was not easy to find and it was hot walking around. Darla bought some local honey and we went into a few very hippy-ish stores. What a weird town.

Makanda, of course, is home to the late Illinois U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. I was expecting a statue or something but they added a bow tie to the town's smiley face water tower after he died in 2003. You'd think the town could do better.

Then it was time for wineries. Our first stop was Blue Sky Vineyards.

Interesting Tuscan look.

Cheers!

The inside was fancy. This was probably the fanciest winery we visited. I did like the ceiling fans that looked like farm windmills.

Stop No. 2 was Feather Hills. We went there because it was lunchtime and they served food.

Little did we know we were walking into a Pirate Fest. The people-watching was incredible. One girl was wearing elf ears. It was quite the show. I later found out it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrr.

This was our lunch. Mine was a club sandwich. It tasted good but I was expecting the club on toast with lettuce.

There was a guy singing on the floor above the seating area. He was loud and kind of butchering every song. It was an experience. I enjoy live music but this was ... a lot.

Third winery stop was Owl Creek Vineyard. The owner went to ISU and worked at the Vidette (after us) but Andy met him at the Vidette reunion night I didn't go to. He said to ask for him when we stopped in, and I did, but he was away for the weekend.

It was out of the way but busy.

Very busy.

Darla and I split a flight.

Cute truck on the grounds. It was hot and we were tired, but Darla indulged me by stopped at a packed thrift store in Carbondale. I didn't find any treasures though.

Wineries, here we come

Darla and I set out at 9 Friday morning for our road trip to Southern Illinois' Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. We were listening to the playlist Darik made for us - eight hours of tunes he thinks we'd enjoy.

After about two hours we arrived at our first destination - Von Jakob Winery and Brewery.

Darla had a wine and I had the pilsner.

Interesting stools and tables.

Our next stop was Alto Vineyards.

This was our lunch stop. We both had a chicken salad sandwich.

Nice indoor space where they can have live music.

The bar. It was pretty quiet everywhere since it was Friday. Everyone told us the weekend will get busier.

We ordered a flight of wine and split it. I had the two red wines. One was good, the other not as good.

Hmmm. They had a cute gift shop.

Beautiful drive through the Shawnee National Forest on our way to ...

the Bald Knob Cross of Peace. This stop wasn't on our itinerary but we saw signs so ... why not stop?

If I could have figured things out, apparently I could have seen the Mississippi River from this view and Kentucky. Not sure what I saw but it was a nice view.

A closer view. We could have walked up the hill and walked around the cross but temperatures were in the 90s so we skipped that. The temperature is also why we didn't sit at any of the wineries' patios though they all had pretty outdoor spaces.

Our last winery of the day was Hickory Ridge Winery. This one was a bit far from the road and we weren't sure it was open despite all of the open flags. We talked to the owner and she's retiring soon.

We had some samples then sat down and enjoyed a glass each.

Cozy inside area.

We're staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Murphysboro and this "muddy monster" was in the lobby (and other places too). There's even a statue of it at the corner where we turned to get to the hotel. It's a local legend. Kind of Southern Illinois' Bigfoot.

To Darla’s

I left late Thursday morning for Darla's house to start our belated 60th birthday road trip adventure!

Can't head south and not drive through Normal.

This was gas in Normal. Most of the stations on the way down were $4.79. Yikes.

The clouds on the drive were interesting.

I stopped at Cindy's on the way down to drop all her many finds from the thrift shopping we did before we left for our Alaskan cruise last month. This was the pile of things sitting on my back porch for the week. Looking through it, she said it was like Christmas because she had forgotten about some of the things she bought.

Along with high gas prices, the temperatures will be hot this weekend. We can certainly pick a weekend lol.

I drove to Cindy's, dropped off all of her things and we went to Litchfield ao I could get some Diet Coke ... and we stopped at Goodwill.

This was a surprise. Cindy picked up bricks in Staunton from our high school that was torn down to make way for new school. She even had one for me to take to Darla.

Of course, I had to drive by and see the new high school.

This is just phase one. There's more to be built.

Just like when I was in high school, I was driving on Route 66, one of its many versions that went through and around my hometown.

These are the farmers who farm my land, though this isn't my farm. They farm a lot of land in the area. Not a great picture but I was driving. I love seeing the farmers at harvest time, easily the best time of the year. It's been dry so they were stirring up a lot of dust. I made it to Darla's! Friday the adventure begins.