October 17-18: Am I Doing This?

"Feel the fear and do it anyway." - Unknown

"A step outside your comfort zone is a step into your miracle zone.' - Cristie B. Gardner

"We won't grow and learn, doing what we've always done, and thinking what we've always thought. We need to move beyond our comfort zones. We need to engage with new and different if we want to expand ourselves." - Akiroq Brost

"If you want to live a life you've never lived, you have to do things you've never done." - Jen Sincero

Here's another first for Laurie - I took a road trip with two men. Bob, who I met on September 20th and Joe who I met, Uh...yesterday. It was one of those doors I just needed to walk through and this is how it got started. When I was in New York Bob and his wine-making group of friends were at Joe's house bottling their latest wine and discussing when and how they were going to pick up their next batch of grapes. Bob suggested that they might use my truck. He called me, I agreed, and we made plans to pick up the grapes in Paso Robles on Saturday, October 18th. I hadn't even met Joe yet, but I know how much Bob loves Joe so I had to say yes. On Friday evening we drove to Joe and Debbie's house where I finally met them, their daughter, Katie and their dog, Bella. I immediately understood why Bob is so close to this family. They were so warm and welcoming. Debbie had prepared Chicken Marsala for dinner. Very yummy. We had drinks and then we turned in for the night. Their guest room has a very small double bed - but Bob and I both slept very comfortably and very cozy. We got up quite early wanting to get on the road by 5:00 AM. We were close - 5:15. We had a four hour drive to Paso Robles and Stillwaters Vineyard where we were picking up 2,000 pounds of Cabernet grapes. The vineyard crushes and de-stems the grapes. Bob and Joe would be putting the grapes into the six large gray trash bins we brought for transporting back to Joe's house. On the drive there as the sun came up we stopped for breakfast at a place called Black Bear Diner. The food was good, avocado toast with eggs over easy. The scenery was just gorgeous. The blue sky, the white clouds, the hills covered in golden grass that looked like brushed velvet blankets. We listened to the Eagles and sang along. We held hands (Bob and I, not Joe). It was all quite nice. We were about 30-45 minutes late getting to the vineyard, but it didn't seem to matter much. Bob and Joe loaded up the grapes into the back of my truck, paid the bill and we were back on the road. On our way back we stopped at "The last stop of James Dean." We took some pics, a potty break, and bought some pistachios. Later we stopped at Carl's Jr. for lunch. Then the long drive back. I wanted to take more pictures, but the early wake up call finally caught up to me and I had to nap. Once back home at Joe's house the six barrels of grapes were then divided into eight barrels to make room for fermentation. We left for home.

Joe would be mushing up the grapes all week as they fermented. He used a tamping tool-used for tamping down sand and dirt for walkway pavers, etc. This sounds like an easy thing to do, but if it is done too much the wine will produce too much alcohol, done too little and there would not be enough alcohol. So he had to know the right amount of mashing to do to create the best fermentation. So in another week we would be back at Joe's house for the pressing of the grapes - more on that later. It was a fun trip and Bob and I got a taste of what it would be like traveling together, which just whet my appetite for getting back on the road.