Our 100th Harvest Host stay!

Day 11

LOCATION:  Outside of Wichita Falls, Texas
CAMPGROUND:  Horseshoe Winery and Vineyard – a Harvest Host site.  Nice gravel driveway to park in.  Easy to find.  Remote, so very quiet.  Very nice staff/owners.  Good wine.  5 stars out of 5
WEATHER:  Hot again.  High 95
DISTANCE DRIVEN:  8 hours

The winery had called us telling us that they had a special event at the winery and that we needed to arrive before 4:00.  So, we got a very early start from Fort Stockton where we had spent the night at the Old ’76 Beer Garden.  The drive was a combination of dreaded Interstate 20 and secondary roads.  The first 3 hours were through oil fields and refineries.  There are so many that the air stinks.  Heavy equipment everywhere.  We drove by the oil towns of Midland and Odessa.  They are full of temporary housing for oil patch workers.  Then, the landscape  turned to sand hills, then black soil, and then red soil.  It started getting a little greener as we drove north.  This has been our route so far….

We arrived at 3:30 and got settled in.  We are on a nice, paved driveway, so no chance of getting stuck if it rains tonight.

  The people hosting the special event at the winery had reserved the entire place except for the upstairs patio.  We did our wine tasting and selected a bottle for dinner.  We spoke with the owner who lives in a gigantic house on the property.  She said storms were predicted for tonight, and if it got took bad, we could run over to their house and hunker down in their tornado shelter!  Yikes! 

The owners/staff are very friendly.  You can see their mansion in the background….

This is our 100th Harvest Host site!  We have really enjoyed staying with them, and often plan our route around interesting-sounding ones.  The company recently obtained another web group called Boondockers Welcome that some HH guests recommended.  With Boondockers Welcome, you stay in people’s driveways at no charge.  We will check it out. 

We enjoyed a “loaded pretzel” with our wine tasting.  We relaxed in their air-conditioned tasting room, using their wifi until 5:30 at which time their special events guests started to arrive.  They moved us to the outside upstairs patio where we ordered a charcuterie plate to have with the bottle we bought.  It was nice and not too hot, except super windy. 

Back at the trailer, we watched some old British comedies (thanks to our daughter) on George’s tablet until it cooled down and we were ready to eat dinner.

DINNER:  Not wanting to heat up Joy, I made chef’s salads:  cheese and meat left from the charcuterie  board, bacos, croutons, all with a homemade balsamic vinegar dressing.  I used a combo of greens – baby spinach, pea shoots, and baby kale.  It hit the spot.

It started to cool down about 8:00.   With all the windows open, it will be ok for sleeping.