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.