Thursday morning August 3rd, Glenna and I headed down the 5 thru Southern Washington, passed into Oregon. Had a blowout on ABE ( Glenna’s tow car, it’s a Lincoln) and a nice person flagged us down to report the damage. Pulled off the freeway to the off ramp, called AAA, took out the spare and waited for the service person to change the tire. We called a tire shop in a small town just 5 miles away, very good person showed up from AAA and changed the tire. Off to the tire shop, new tire and back on the road, we felt lucky this entire episode only took one hour and ten minutes. Into Oregon passed Portland and into the beautiful wine country in McMinville. Checked into the Old Stone RV Park, set up in this very nice park. Pool, good wifi, clean everything with friendly staff. Our first night we went in to McMinville to meet up with some old friends from my days at Hamilton Avnet in San Diego 40 years ago. Jim and Susan Wittry live in Hillsboro just 30 miles away and this was a perfect place to meet up. Fantastic spanish tapas at La Rambla, wine and plenty of conversation was the perfect setting for this reunion. Glenna did hear some good stories about me from my early days as a Charger fan and days at the Pomerado Club in Poway. Fun times for sure, we will see them again because I want to come back and do some fishing with Jim on the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean, great salmon, crab, etc up here.

Thursday, our friends from Laguna Beach, CA Scott and Beth picked us up at the park and we set out for a wine tasting at Stoller Family Estate. Beth set up a tasting on the patio overlooking a vineyard and the view was just spectacular. Wine, cheese, nuts, more wine and this beautiful setting made for a perfect afternoon. Back to the RV and Pat whipped up some tasty quesadillas for a small dinner to end the night.

Friday, Ron and Kathy arrived and parked in the space next to us. Scott, Beth, Glenna and I went to lunch at the Red Hills Market while the Fawcetts and John arrived and got set up. John, a long time friend of Scott and Beth who lives in Eugene also joined us at the park for a couple nights. Picked them up and out to the next wine event at the Holloran Tasting Room. Flight of five wines seemed to be the thing to do ($25) so we had our fill of Pinot’s from this area and enjoyed getting to know John and being with our old friends. Dinner at the RV’s was someting not to be missed. Shishito Peppers, Quesadillas, Pork Loin, Corn on the cob with plenty of good wines to share.

Saturday, we all went back to the Red Hills Market to order lunch to go. It was so good the day before, we decided to do it again. Picked up the lunches and headed over to Torii Mor Winery for our outside seating in their Japanese style garden with a great view overlooking the valley below. Relaxing lunch and wine tasting chatting away on muliple subjects. We then went to Patricia Green Cellars with Scott doing the driving and John providing the music list blasting the wine wine wine song along with other wine related songs, thank you John….. Arrived at Patricia Green Cellars where there was a warm greeting and a wonderful table in the center of the tasting room. Pat and Glenna are members so the tastings are all on the house, good to be part of the SPONGE TOUR. Ryan, Abigail and Kathern took great care of us pouring the tasting menu plus others we wanted to try, of course we did need to revisit a couple along the way. The staff loved the carmels provided by Pat and Glenna (signature move). Picked up the wine that Pat and Ron bought and heded back to the RV. We all decided instead of going out to dinner, we would have a BBQ at the RV’s and drink some good Cabernets because we were all Pinot out. John bought some big ribeye steak earlier in the morning, Beth picked up some potato’s to bake and Kathy added a nice salad. Fun time watching the ballgame and eating the feast set out by all. Said our good bye’s as John was heading back to Eugene, Scott and Beth were leaving in the morning, Ron and Kathy were heading North to the Columbia River for the next week. Pat and Glenna are going South to California to visit other wine regions.

Enough said

Susan, Glenna, Pat and Jim

Air Museum in McMinville

Pat, Glenna, Scott and Beth

View from the patio at Stoller

Tasting room Holloran

Shisito Peppers

Lunch and wine at Torii Mor

Scott and Glenna

Red Hills Market

Dinner on the patio at the rv park

Thank you Scott for doing the driving

Abigail, Ryan and Kathryn love the carmels

Glenna pouring wine

Beth wanted to be the host and pour the wine.

Next stop: Sonoma and Napa Velley