Wilsonville, AL

 Yet one more bright sunny day to drive across yet another state. 

Tonight we are in Wilsonville AL.  Most of the day was on Interstate 20, the first 40 miles on 2 lane roads, another chunk on 4 Lane south of Birmingham and finally some wide 2 lane to camp. 

Looks like we won’t see our hosts.  This is a vacant lot on the Main Street of town and they live a couple miles away. It’s nice that they make it available anyway.  There is just a small sign saying “camp here”. 

We went grocery shopping and got fuel after arrival.  After supper we 3 went for a walk around town.  Nice small town.  

I don’t know what happened to this trailer, but it must make a great story!

The next door folks are pretty quiet

Carlene found a Lot of flowers right here at our campsite

A Stroka Gene-Us Alpaca farm, Stringer, MS

Beautiful sunny day, a little cooler than the past couple days.  No shorts today.

It was just a driving day, no side trips  or stops.  We did ditch the interstate for the final third of the trip.  It was shorter and still mostly 4 lane but it did go through a few towns.  That offers some scenic variety.

We are here at the A Stroka Gene-Us Alpaca farm.  Mary Ann has flock of alpaca and some chickens, a duck, 2 donkeys and 4 big white Great Pyrenees guard dogs for the alpaca.  We are welcome to walk Skye as long as we stay away from her dogs.  They consider any dog coming close to be a threat to their alpaca.

We had a short tour with Amanda (family friend & frequent farm guide) met the donkeys, tried to meet the alpaca but it was their feeding time and had no interest in anything else.  Naturally!

They have a nice little store, showed us the carding process and spinning process for the yarn.  They had many things made here like socks, toys, hats & mittens etc.  Carlene got a sweater made in Peru.

Crossing the Mississippi 

Alpaca

Guard Dogs

Waiting for us to do something

Landry Vineyards, W. Monroe, LA

 A nice clear sunny day for a drive.  

We made a stop around noon at the T. C. Lindsey & Co. Store in Jonesville, TX. We were there a few years ago and enjoyed the store enough that I have their T Shirt (and wore it today) and we have wanted to visit it again.  It’s half store and half museum. Many items are old and just on display. They’ve been open since 1847. 

We’re camping tonight at the Landry Vinyards in W. Monroe, LA. Quite different than the last winery!  And these wines are all very good. We have 3 bottles coming home with us. 

We’ve noticed all the weather east of us.  It started a day ahead of us and as we stopped every night it kept going.  So we are well behind it all.  But watching for whatever brews up to chase us!

“Jonesville General Store”

At the Vineyard

Another Harvest Host guest in front of us.

We never did meet them, never saw them outside for over a minute.

The Tasting Area

Sometimes they have bands for a concert

800 or more attend!

Palestine, TX

 Quite overcast today, even foggy at times. 

Long drive compared to our usual days. About 300 miles in 6 hours of drive time. No big deal, just more than usual for us. But we are here at the Ranch At Walston Springs.  A lovely place that we stayed at last year on our way west. Beautiful pastures with cattle.  Now we are used to cattle at camp, but these are on the other side of the fence!   Nice well maintained farm with numerous outbuildings including several that are overnight rentals. And the people are great.  Amanda has many vegetables already growing. Her garden looks like June in VT. 

No road pictures to show. It was a windy day, trailer was getting hit a lot.  So I had both hands occupied and didn’t take any road shots.  But the terrain kept changing.  We went through the rear of the Hill Country with lots of rolling green areas, green forests that said the great open spaces with 5 mile views are behind us.  Then out onto the start of the plains.  But still green and with forest mixed in. 

And Carlene was delighted with all the new flowers to see