The day after Memorial Day, we hitched up and headed west.   We had remarked through the years that we needed to try some of the wineries in the Leavenworth area so decided to stop before going over the Cascades.   The Thousand Trails park is listed as being in Leavenworth - simply beause that is the nearest thing to a city.   It is about 20 miles northwest and, unfortunately, we picked the wrong route to get there.  Twisty, climbing and descending over and over, made for a long 20 miles and not pleasant occupants once we reached the park.  Turns out there is a better way, but one they don’t put on the web page!   Next, was the ever horrible task of finding a site, since TT sites are always 1st come sites.  Which means the best sites for motorhomes over 30 ft area always filled by tiny trailers or popups!   I realize they spend the same for dues as we do, but …..  

Anyway, the park does have some full hookup sites, which would have been great had they been in a place where we could get EITHER cell service or satellite TV.   But that was not to be.   So we had to dump before getting a site with fair cell service.  We didn’t even try for satellite - 6 days we can go without it as long as we can read, etc.  Plus, we were going to be doing wine searches.   Our cell service was ok, could not stream and upload speeds were non-existent, but we could read, etc. and do the things we needed to do.

Our first winery was Icicle Ridge Winery, in the village of Peshantin located just south of Leavenworth.  It was a very sunny day with heat into the 90s!  Yes, that is unusual up in the mountains and flood warnings were out because there was rapid snow melt high up in the Cascades.   Which made having the wine tasting outdoors on a shaded veranda very nice.   Dave was especially taken with their Gewurztraminer.  We also had a nice conversation with our hostess who told us she and her husband were just getting ready to relocate to Casa Grande, AZ!

Our second winery stop was Silvara Winery, also located in Peshantin across the small valley from Icicle Ridge Winery.  You can see pictures of our afternoon tasting their offerings here.  We also chatted with the hostess about her daughter’s choice of a university to attend in the Fall.  

Our third find was Plains Cellars, in the small village of Plains about 3 miles southeast of where we were staying and about 16 miles northwest of Leavenworth.   In other words, way out in the middle of nowhere, but WELL worth the trip.   They had some very interesting wines, including a Viognier, which we had to purchase for our first dinner with my sister Margaret when we get to to her place this week.   We have several pictures of this winery located here.

Wine wasn’t the only thing we purchased during our stay - we stopped at a little store north Leavenworth call The Alps on Highway 2.   Our sweethooth was in high gear as we pursued several of their offerings, with the results shown in this picture.

Next stop, the west side of the Cascades where we can be assured of rain off and on until at least July!