Scenic drive, peanuts and wine....

Our Location: Devencrest Rv Park, Albany, GA

A glorious day here today, temps around 65 F/17 C, with very little wind. A bit too cool to sit outside but we were pretty busy anyway and didn't have time until later in the afternoon which as I said, made it too cool. 

This morning we started off going to run a few errands and ended up about 40 miles from Albany at a small town called Leary, Ga. We followed Highway 62 to the turn off for a small vineyard that produces some award winning wines here in Georgia. 

 

The road we travelled to reach Still Pond Winery, this would be Highway 62 West.  A very nice drive, lots of cypress trees along the swamp like areas, plenty of fields, and country homes, farms and small businesses. A very scenic drive to say the least. The town of Leary makes a small splash in the country side but comes complete with a set of train tracks, and 1 flashing light. As you can see by the sign, it's an old well settled town. 

As we passed the edge of town we noticed the Peanut Warehouse on the left. I've seen one before but didn't know what it was, it wasn't signed but this one was. The most significant thing about the Peanut Warehouse was the roofed buildings, no walls, just a roof. Under each 'port' was parked a big rig trailer, no rig, just the trailer, there must have been at least 50 spots and all of them were full. Two buildings up front were obviously the loading/unloading docks as they reminded me of grain or corn elevators or conveyors to move the loads. It was a very unassuming little spot, with no office or store present that I could see, but I'll bet it's pretty busy when it's time to harvest the crops.

Two buildings like this, nothing obvious about them and unless you knew what it was you would drive by thinking it was just a farmer's barn. I only had by cell phone for pictures so they aren't great but it gives you an idea of what we were seeing.

In the pic below you can see the corner of both barns and that long flat light brown looking line is the roof of the 'ports' I mentioned above, similar to a car port. Under each of those is a big rig box, and that is just a few that you see in this picture, they go in an L shape behind the barn on the left and continue for probably 350 feet. It looks like quite an operation. I would love to be here when they are actually working the place. 

Shortly after passing this spot we turned left to head to the Vineyard. We stopped just over the train tracks to look up the address, ensuring we were on the right path, and wouldn't you know it, the train we had stopped for in town was crossing right behind us. It was too funny. Anyway, we followed this road for a couple of miles, made a right turn onto a true Georgia back road complete with red/orange dirt that was soft and squishy to drive on.  We followed this road for about a mile before coming to the vineyard. You can see along the road way into the winery that the area is being cleared for more grape vines in the near future. It will at some point be a very impressive vineyard/winery. 

The house below belongs to the owners of this little spot. The pic on the left is the 'store' and wine tasting venue. A number of wines and trinkets are available for purchase. It is surround with antiques of varying kinds, and the softest haired dog I've ever pet in my life. ~laugh~ 

The nice gentleman that sold us our wine was impressed that we came all the way from Ontario, Canada to purchase his wine. I assured him we were in the 'area' and a friend had mentioned how wonderful his wines were and how they had just started producing wine, instead of just selling their grapes to someone else. He seemed a bit surprised that we would drive from Albany to Leary just to buy some wine. While it was a fair piece to drive it was also very scenic and new country for us to see. 

This mailbox was at the end of the drive. I thought it was very unique and cute. Note the two young monkeys on his lap. Too funny. 

We headed back to Albany to do our errands, Kmart was the first stop but we didn't buy anything as the lines were very long, so we opted to leave the 2 movies we had picked up. Not worth that kind of wait. 

Lowe's was the next stop, we found a number of things there that we will at some point purchase but just not today. No use hauling this stuff around all winter when we won't need it until Spring. 

Walmart was our last stop, we had a number of things to purchase there. We needed groceries and so managed to fit them in our buggy around our other purchases. ~laugh~ Food storage containers, new blind for the window by the sink,  and a few other goodies. After paying and getting outside we realized it was almost 2 pm, I loaded the truck while Riley went back inside to get us a Sub Sandwich. Worked out great she was coming out as I was putting the cart in the buggy collector. 

From there it was home to unload the groceries, have our sub and hopefully relax. It kind of worked like that but not so much the relax part until everything was put away, new containers washed, and filled, new blind hung, and a visit to the office to put our small turkey in the fridge until we cook it on Christmas day. No room in our fridge. ~laugh~ 

By that time it was 4:30 pm, we left home around 9 am to run a few errands. Where does the time go? Just kind of slips on by here. After those chores I decided I needed to prep dinner right then, or I wouldn't want to get back up to do it later. Breaded loin chops, steamed veggies with parsley, rosemary and thyme, along with white rice. We prepped everything but the rice. Played a game of Yahtzee...I won...~doing a happy dance~ I even rolled a Yahtzee. Miracle of miracles. ~laugh~  Read our books for a while, closed the big door as it cooled off quickly.  Started cooking around 6:45 pm, ready just about 7:15 pm. It was excellent. I added Mike's Orange Mustard Glaze to the beaten egg, it gave it a great flavour. Dishes done, put away, garbage out, and everything tidied up by 8:00 pm. 

Time sit down and write my blog, while Riley does whatever it is she does in her room. I hear giggles from there on occasion so it must be something funny that she does in there. ~laugh~ 

Tomorrow we will get back to walking again, but we will only be leaving the park for two things, our walk and a quick trip to Mike's country store, we need some more salad dressing from there.  Apple Pecan salad dressing. I really liked it, Riley didn't but that was okay, more for me. ~laugh~ She's eyeing up Mike's Ranch dressing and Mike's Pineapple Salsa, so I think we'll be getting those tomorrow. 

Anyway, a great day for us, busy and interesting. Hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time....be safe, take care.......