En Route to Missouri

I had a little too far to travel to my next official destination in one day, so I broke it into one bigger day and one smaller day.  For the overnight, I once again selected a spot from Harvest Hosts called Bretz Wildlife Lodge and Winery in Carlyle, Illinois.  It isn't quite what you would think based on the name.  It isn't the kind of lodge with hotel type rooms,instead the name refers more to the decor of the wine store and restaurant.  There were ample taxidermy trophies hanging on the walls, which were log cabin like and there were fire places.  I was warmly greeted and offered a wine tasting.  I said I would come back in after I had my trailer set up for the night because darkness would soon arrive and I might be a bit tipsy after all the tasting. 

Based on my general wine preferences I was given 7 samples.  I narrowed them down to my 3 favorites and then bought the outer two. 

It is interesting how things change.  There was a time when a good wine had to come in a bottle with a natural cork.  As cork growth was unable to keep up with cork demand plastic corks and screw top bottles have taken over.  At this winery they use exclusively natural cork, which effected my buying decision.  The middle bottle was a fruit wine, which I thought might be nice on ice cream, which would have meant it would not all be consumed in one sitting, which wouldn't have been much of a concern if it had a screw top, but because it had a cork, I decided not to buy it.  

Rather than go to the trouble of cooking dinner after the tasting, I stayed and enjoyed dinner in the lodge, along with a proper glass of wine.  I was glad that I did because I had good conversations with three other patrons and the food was good.  

When I returned to the trailer, the moon was still nearly full and rather impressive.