Just like “Gone with the Wind!”

CAMPGROUND: Tara Winery through Harvest Hosts. We are in a pasture next to their inn. Water and electricity hook-ups, which is rare. We don’t mind paying, but $30 for the hook-ups seems steep. Very unlevel – George spent a lot of time getting us level using boards and levelers. 3 stars out of 5
LOCATION: Athens, Texas – in NE part of state. About 1 hour south of Dallas
WEATHER: HOT, HOT. 97 with 100+ heat index

We only had about 3 hours to drive today, so we took our time. We went out of our way a bit in order to miss Dallas. We watched the thermometer with the outside temp going up and up. The drive was pretty unremarkable except for one town which proclaims to be the world’s largest flea market. Apparently once a month hundreds of thousands of shoppers come to this town. We saw miles of flea market stands and parking areas. Glad it wasn’t today!

Our GPS took us on some backroads as we neared the winery. Really curvy. We passed by several exotic game parks – you can identify them by the high fences surrounding them. We saw something in the road ahead of us and slowed down. It turned out to be a rancher trying to get his wayward cow back into the field. Here is the rancher coaxing the cow with a feed bag.

The cow didn’t seem interested in being captured.

Finally, the cow followed the rancher back to his field.

The winery has a beautiful inn on the property which we spotted from a distance. We later learned that the house was moved from the town of Athens, about 5 miles away. It was the home of the Dallas Cowboy owner. Now it is used as an inn, especially for weddings and other events at the winery. Check it out at https://tarawinery.com

At the winery, we were instructed to park next to the inn, which meant backing up about 1/4 mile on their driveway. The parking area is just a field, and George worked hard to get us level…..in the 100 degree weather. 😦

The Airstream thermostat showed 94 degrees inside. It would take a while for the A/C to get it cooled down. Hot, sweaty, and thirsty, we walked up to the winery for some refreshments, air-conditioning, and wifi. This is the view from the winery. You can almost see the Airstream in the lower left-hand side of the photo. It is really a lovely location, nestled among the vineyard.

DINNER: Leftovers from my high school reunion dinner – brisket and cheesy potatoes. Side was a stir-fry of onion, various peppers, and tomatoes.