Jacqueline’s Jaunts

                                                                                                                                                                              Our drive to Colorado was delayed this morning. A major thunderstorm came in around 3:00 AM. It was  pretty intense. The storm was right over us and lighting up the sky constantly for hours. Our Shiloh Vineyards hosts told Barry this morning that he kept an eye on the weather for tornadoes in case they had to come get us to run into  the storm cellar. Not something I w...

  We left this morning and arrived at Shiloh Vineyard and Winery around 1:30 PM. It was an easy drive. We hit fifteen minutes of rain. We had to travel three miles down a gravel road, but it was not as bad as we expected.  The winery is beautiful and the only place out here in the plains of Kansas. This was a family homestead, and the current owners put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into remodeling the property. The tasting room is the old chicken coop. The wines taste so different from those on the West Coast. They seem sweeter. We ended up buying 6 bottles and a bottle of port. We sat under the covered patio for the afternoon, sipping a glass of wine, enjoying the soft summer breeze and the orioles flitting around. The winery has two dogs that would come around every now and then for pets, so we got our dog fix.  This Building is Used for Events.  This is the Side Entrance to the Tasting Room. It Used to be the Chicken Coop. Inside the Tasting Room.  The F...

We spent the day at  Fort Larned National Historic Site . It’s only about 3 miles from the Santa Fe Trail Center, where we are staying. This place is superb. Please visit if you are ever in the area.  The fort is part of the Santa Fe Trail, which began in 1821. We went to the visitor center first to get my passport books stamped. We watched the movie, which was both informative and engaging. The fort was built as part of the Santa Fe Trail but was later abandoned. It was purchased by the Frizell family and used as a ranch, but was then abandoned again. The U.S. National Park Service bought it, and it is now a National Historic Site. Most of the buildings have been restored and are in excellent condition. The displays in each building are amazing and give you a great sense of what it was like to live at the fort in the 1800s. The buildings have names carved into their sides from people who worked and lived at the fort throughout its storied history. The park service h...

Larned, Kansas, here we come. I can’t believe I slept until 10:00 AM. I’m feeling better each day, and Barry’s cough is almost gone.  Beautiful day today with clear blue skies. The drive was windy most of the way. We arrived around 1:30 PM, checked in at the museum ,  and parked where they directed us to. We will be staying here for the next 2 nights. Great grassy spot with a view of the old buildings that were moved here for the museum. There was a nice breeze. We ate lunch and then walked over to the museum. What a fantastic museum. The exhibits are excellent. You can tell they take a lot of pride in their museum. It was not dusty, all the glass was clean, floors were clean. The buildings outside were all in great shape. Lots of history in this area since it’s part of the Santa Fe Trail. A lot of the artifacts are real. I loved the indian clothing they had on display. There was also a very large bison. It was magnificent. They are such majestic animals. We ended up spending ...