My Special Day (Troy, MO)

Today I was born a few years ago.  How many years?  Here's a hint: I get money back now from all the jobs I've had and, much of the time I worked two jobs to make ends meet.  I'm so happy to get this far, now I can quit having birthdays.  My checks were suppose to start next month, but Uncle Sam says he'll send them out the second week of August. I hope it's not later than that.

We planned a full day visiting some local Missouri wineries. Doris came and got us about 10:00.  It was a perfect day with clouds and NO humidity. Below are some pictures of the wineries we visited.  If anyone is in Missouri around State Roads 100 and 19, and US 94, watch for all the winery signs.

Hermann, MO is a quaint little town on the Missouri River.  It was settled by German immigrants in the early 1800's, and the German influence is very strong all over town, with many of the business having German names.

Hermannhof Winery was first on our itinerary.  They had an impressive lineup of wines.  After some free samples, I just had to buy a bottle.  :)

Across the street is the Tin Mill Company.  They not only make wine, but they also have a micro-brewery and they produce six kinds of beer. Neither Jim or I cared for the beer, but I bought another bottle of wine.

Next is Adam Puchta and Son Wine Company.  This is Doris's favorite winery, and this was our second visit there. I liked the way they do the tastings.  They give samples of food along with the wine to show how food and wine complement each other.

It was time for lunch.  We thought we better get some food into us to soak up all the wine we'd been drinking.  We went to Stone Hill Winery Vintage Restaurant.  The building used to be a horse barn.  Very unique, and the food was excellent!

The booths are in what used to be horse stalls. 

Some of the grape vineyards.

One of the streets in Hermann goes straight up. I doubt if they can use that road in dead winter unless it's cleared really well.

After we were well-fed, we headed for Berger, MO and the Bias Winery. This trip has a neat story to it.  We were using the GPS.  We put in the address, but apparently Doris's GPS has been acting up.  After a short stop, the GPS lost the address we loaded so it led us astray. We ended up in someones backyard on a very narrow gravel road deep in the Missouri backwoods.  When the road started getting almost too narrow to travel on, we turned around, reset the GPS, and continued our journey.  Turns out we were only off a few miles.

As we were traveling the back roads we saw 5 baby deer under an overpass.  I didn't have time to get a picture, but they sure were cute. We stopped in the small town of New Haven to see a small glass shop that demonstrates glass blowing.  The town had a very small "downtown" area with about a dozen businesses lined up along the street.  It looked sort of like an old western ghost town like you see in the movies.  The businesses were only open on weekends, so they were all closed when we were there. There were a few cars and a few people that just stared at us.  Very creepy!  We didn't hang around long.

 We drove on to Robller Vineyard.  This was another out of the way winery, but they had some very good wines.

The views from some of these wineries are awesome.
 

When we finished our winery tour it was time for dinner.  For the past 14 years I've made it a tradition on my birthday to have a lobster dinner at Red Lobster.  The closest one to Troy was about 45 minutes away in Chesterfield, so we headed that way.  We got there at 5:00 which a perfect time to beat the crowds.

I always have a cup of clam chowder.

OHHHH yummy!  Sometimes they're very tough, but this time it was perfect.  I even had a crab filling added this year.  I can't wait to get to Maine to get more lobsters (maybe even a bit cheaper).

My hubby got me the most wonderful gift.  He found fifth wheels earrings.  I love them! Thanks so much darling!

My sister got me a wonderful cake decorated with my favorite NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon.  So when we got home we had cake and ice cream.  What a great ending to a most wonderful day with hubby and sister.  Thanks to both of you!