Caching, Wining, and Barbecuing

Very little blogging in recent days, with too much time being occupied with all manner of obligations and necessities, not the least of which is dealing with less-than-happy medical situations. Without going into detail, I am doing okay, but as certain (mostly) age-related issues rear their ugly heads, I’m having to spend time, energy, and resources (financial and otherwise) staying on top of them. So far, still alive and kicking.

Brugger and I had a nice respite yesterday by heading down to the Lexington area to get in some geocaching (well, for me, anyway), visit a couple of wineries, and have some dynamite Lexington barbecue. Our first stop was Lake Thom-A-Lex, so named because it sits smack between Thomasville and Lexington. I’ve cached there many times, and since this newish one was so close to our chosen wineries, Ms. B. was kind enough to go out on the trail after the cache with me. It was about a two-mile round-trip hike, and the somewhat cooler weather (84°F) made being in the woods generally pleasant.

From there, we booked up to Old Homeplace Vineyards at the northern end of the lake, where we sampled several of the wines and had a picnic lunch. As with most North Carolina wineries, the wine was only fair-to-middlin’, but for us, it’s all about the experience. It’s a scenic location, there are farm animals all around, and the temperature was pleasant, so we quite enjoyed the place. Once done there, we headed over to nearby Childress Vineyards, which is as large as Old Homeplace is small. It’s a pretty big operation, with a busy bistro, wine & gift shop, an outdoor cantina, and more. Relative to other local wineries, the tastings are quite expensive, though the prices for glasses and bottles of wine are pretty much on par. Also, like most North Carolina wineries, their wine is drinkable but mostly unremarkable. Now, they did offer a unique bourbon barrel–aged white wine called Angel’s Wrath, which I quite enjoyed.

So, all in all, the winery experiences for the day rated high.

After Childress, we were closing in on dinnertime, so we went to Lexington Barbecue, which I’ve enjoyed a handful of times while caching in that vicinity. I had their coarse chopped bbq plate, which was huge, smoky, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This made a fine closing for our day in Lexington.

Back home, we watched a couple of movies — You Only Live Twice (I had a craving for some classic Connery Bond, and Ms. B. humored me), and the 1999 The Mummy (Ms. B. had a craving for cheese, and I humored her).

This morning, I went out after a single cache in High Point, then did maintenance on one of mine on the way home. And now, it’s back to work writing. Ciao, y’all.

One of Old Homeplace’s farm critters finding some shade and trying to avoid the swarming bugs

A neat charcuterie board at Childress’s gift shop that would be SO spot-on for friend Beth