My OperaWine – Its Not Just For Breakfast Anymore
Friday, July 14, 2006 3:45:38 PM
From: Ozark, MO
To: State Park, AR
Miles: 464
MPG: 51.6
What better way to start the day than tasting some fine Missouri wine? Actually, we can think of several, but we drove right through Branson on the way south (Branson is sort of the Las Vegas of the heartland. Picture Vegas minus the nudity and prostitution and plus big hair, cowboy hats, and “down home family fun”) and the Stone Hill Winery was too close to pass up. All their grapes are all-American, which got approving nods from the others on our winery tour.
We can’t tell you that much more about the winery because the guy leading the tour spoke with such a twang that we only caught about 30% of what he told us, and what happened after the tour was kind of a blur – a speed tasting of about 15 wines. We did manage to pick up a few good points, such as “most wines should be drunk young, and not aged at all.” Overall, the strategy of speed and gibberish worked, for while the wine didn’t taste all that good in the beginning, by wine number 14 Jessica was thinking that they weren’t all that bad.
Leaving the winery, we stumbled across the Titanic. Hey, how’d it get to the heartland?
On the way out of Branson, we solved the mystery of the flamoose! (The original version of the flamingo was a morphing of a flamingo and a goose.) Apparently this is the flock of lawn ornaments that spawned he/she/it.
Wal-Mart
The town of Bentonville, AR (the home town of Wal-Mart) is designed like a Wal-Mart store – sprawling and impossible to get into and out of easily. It took us WAY too long to get to the original store considering our level of interest, but once in the vortex, we had to see it through.
Can’t pass up Freedom Fries! Too bad it was too late for Freedom Toast. Wow.
The World’s Biggest Can of Spinach
The town of Alma, AR is the world’s spinach capital. Jessica was especially excited about this one. (She loves her green vegetables.) At first pass we thought that maybe the world’s largest can of spinach was another hoax, but when we asked a local she told us, without missing a beat, “Oh. You must mean the water tower.” So off we went, and there it was, in all its glory.
Arkansas Wine – Who Knew?
A few miles down the road we found ourselves in Arkansas wine country. Figuring it was a contender to knock Nebraska out of last place, we grabbed a flamingo and went off to taste some. We were shocked to find that it was actually pretty good. Who would have thought! There were actually several surprises here. Number one was that wine made in Arkansas could actually be something other than rot gut. The second surprise was that the winery we went to is run by a 29 year old winemaker (she started it at 22 – that made us feel so inadequate). The third surprise was that, for the first time in her life, Jessica found a Chardonnay that she liked, and in Arkansas! “Huh,” was really all we could say.
Having had enough of cheap motels, we decided to camp for the night in the Valley Creek State Park. It was a whole lot of nature – heat, humidity, and enough bugs to plaster a room with – but all in all, still a welcome reprieve from the dumps we have been staying in. Still, as Jessica put it, “a little less nature” would have made for a more pleasant evening.
To: State Park, AR
Miles: 464
MPG: 51.6
What better way to start the day than tasting some fine Missouri wine? Actually, we can think of several, but we drove right through Branson on the way south (Branson is sort of the Las Vegas of the heartland. Picture Vegas minus the nudity and prostitution and plus big hair, cowboy hats, and “down home family fun”) and the Stone Hill Winery was too close to pass up. All their grapes are all-American, which got approving nods from the others on our winery tour.
We can’t tell you that much more about the winery because the guy leading the tour spoke with such a twang that we only caught about 30% of what he told us, and what happened after the tour was kind of a blur – a speed tasting of about 15 wines. We did manage to pick up a few good points, such as “most wines should be drunk young, and not aged at all.” Overall, the strategy of speed and gibberish worked, for while the wine didn’t taste all that good in the beginning, by wine number 14 Jessica was thinking that they weren’t all that bad.
Leaving the winery, we stumbled across the Titanic. Hey, how’d it get to the heartland?
On the way out of Branson, we solved the mystery of the flamoose! (The original version of the flamingo was a morphing of a flamingo and a goose.) Apparently this is the flock of lawn ornaments that spawned he/she/it.
Wal-Mart
The town of Bentonville, AR (the home town of Wal-Mart) is designed like a Wal-Mart store – sprawling and impossible to get into and out of easily. It took us WAY too long to get to the original store considering our level of interest, but once in the vortex, we had to see it through.
Can’t pass up Freedom Fries! Too bad it was too late for Freedom Toast. Wow.
The World’s Biggest Can of Spinach
The town of Alma, AR is the world’s spinach capital. Jessica was especially excited about this one. (She loves her green vegetables.) At first pass we thought that maybe the world’s largest can of spinach was another hoax, but when we asked a local she told us, without missing a beat, “Oh. You must mean the water tower.” So off we went, and there it was, in all its glory.
Arkansas Wine – Who Knew?
A few miles down the road we found ourselves in Arkansas wine country. Figuring it was a contender to knock Nebraska out of last place, we grabbed a flamingo and went off to taste some. We were shocked to find that it was actually pretty good. Who would have thought! There were actually several surprises here. Number one was that wine made in Arkansas could actually be something other than rot gut. The second surprise was that the winery we went to is run by a 29 year old winemaker (she started it at 22 – that made us feel so inadequate). The third surprise was that, for the first time in her life, Jessica found a Chardonnay that she liked, and in Arkansas! “Huh,” was really all we could say.
Having had enough of cheap motels, we decided to camp for the night in the Valley Creek State Park. It was a whole lot of nature – heat, humidity, and enough bugs to plaster a room with – but all in all, still a welcome reprieve from the dumps we have been staying in. Still, as Jessica put it, “a little less nature” would have made for a more pleasant evening.
