RV travel

Brandywine Creek Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 14 Comments

Sher and I visited the Brandywine Creek Winery on our way home from a day of adventure in Greenfield, which is east of Indianapolis. We had seen Brandywine listed, but had never stopped. We are glad we did.

At the tasting bar

Without the sign out front, you’d think that the winery was a private home in Pleasant View, just off of I-74. Walking in the front door reveals a beautiful tasting bar with wine related merchandise displayed. In addition, several hand made jewelry pieces and some kids craft projects are also available.

Out front signage

The wine bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the wine is what’s important. The tastings are done at the wine bar, only $5 for 6 tastes. A wide variety of types of wine are ready for you. We enjoyed the tasting. and since I was driving, our hostess let us share a tasting. (I take sips, but still get a good read of the sample.) We liked what we tried, and purchased three bottles of their sweet wines.

Enjoy wine at a table overlooking the vineyard

The facility has a beautifully constructed porch/veranda out back with tables that overlook the vineyard. Brandywine has over five acres of vineyards in two locations. The first vines were planted in 2014. Check their website for details about their Event Room rental and schedule of weekend live music and Trivia events. We really enjoyed our visit.

Where the buffalo roam

/ Roadtirementvintage / 43 Comments

This afternoon the weather was nearly perfect for outside activity. We headed for the town of Greenfield for some sightseeing and who knows what else.  At one point we were walking around the downtown area and we came upon an interesting sight.

There between two bushes was the statue of a bison, sometimes erroneously referred to as a buffalo. Well, the camera had to come out for that! Especially when I saw the body of the bison behind its mane was painted in a mural.

 

 

 

 

 

Turns out this animal was commissioned for the Indiana Bicentennial celebration  in 2016. This bison was named “Whitcomb” in honor of James Whitcomb Riley, Greenfield’s famous author. The paintings traces the history of Indiana natural history and agriculture from the Ice Age to modern times. The Bisontennial (get it?) statues were seen all over the state in different designs and colors.

 

Oldenburg 1871 Sorrowful Mother Shrine

/ Roadtirementvintage / 17 Comments

Oldenburg Indiana is known for its rich religious history. Founded in 1837 by German settlers, it is known as the “Village of Spires” due to the multiple church steeples that make up the town’s skyline.

Located about a mile outside the town limits visitors will find the beautiful Sorrowful Mother Shrine, erected in 1871 by Siegfried Koehler, who had arrived in Oldenburg from Alsace, France in the late 1830’s.

The Altar

Prayer bench

 

 

 

 

 

The statue on the altar is actually a plaster cast of the original that Koehler brought with him on the ship from France. The original was found to be hand carved from black walnut, and now is in the Holy Family Catholic Church in Oldenburg to protect it from vandalism.

The Seven Sorrows of Mary

Seven Sorrows pictured

 

 

 

 

 

The shrine is found on a country road, and is in a beautiful setting. Trees, lawns and a stone bench ad to the ambience. While it can be locked, the shrine was open the day we visited. This is a Holy and Sacred place, and you can feel peace and serenity at the shrine.

Enjoying Harmony Winery wines

/ Roadtirementvintage / 8 Comments

We liked the Indigo wine so much from Harmony Winery that we just had to go back for more.  It has become our new favorite.  It is so refreshing and has a hint of blueberry.

When we had a wine tasting on Thursday, we bought 2 bottles of the Indigo.  We had a wonderful time during our tasting.  Our host was the head winemaker and general manager, Kyle Condra. He was very helpful in selecting our wines to sample.  He even offered suggestions on serving it.  He was also fun to chat with.

The Harmony Winery wines are delicious.  We tried about 5 for our wine tasting.  It was hard to decide which we liked best.  Usually we find one or two we like, but rarely all 5!  We tried Copper Tiger which tastes like you’ve taken a bite of watermelon.

On Sunday as we were leaving the Highway 40 yard sale we decided we should get some more since we now have a new favorite.  This time we met the owner, Josh Adams, another delightful person to talk with.  He told us about some of the plans they are making for the winery and events they are going to have.

Turtle Bay is a fantastic pairing of the natural berry and plum flavors of White Zinfandel with a host of luscious fruits including blackberry, strawberry, passionfruit, and blackcurrant.  We bought a few bottles of this on our return trip on Sunday.

It was a nice ending to our yard sale week.  We were tired and ready to go home and relax.  It was nice taking a long shower and then having a glass of wine.
We are looking forward to returning and tasting some of the other wines.  We also want to attend some of the events they have planned.

Kyle and Josh are super nice and make your visit to the Harmony Winery a most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon in Knightstown. Knightstown is on the Historic Highway US 40 between Indianapolis and Richmond, Indiana.

Local pizza restaurants can be the best

/ Roadtirementvintage / 49 Comments

We had our own meal preparation ingredients in the RV when we were at the Highway 40 yard sale last week. We’d been there since Monday and were enjoying the time in our RV, including the meals we prepared.

However after the rains all day Wednesday and most of Thursday, we were ready for a change in our eating. A search of the web for pizza restaurants near us produced a couple in Knightstown, just a few miles down the road. Jeff’s Pizza looked inviting, and online ordering was quick and easy. Whenever we can we like to patronize local hometown businesses.

Special w/tons of veggies under that thick layer of cheese

The pizzas were very very good! We ordered a veggie special and a meat special. The toppings and cheese portions were most generous. Sher and I both had “leftover” pizza the next day as well. I’d have to say that I heated mine up on day two in the microwave, and it was frankly as good as if not better than the first day.

Indiana’s Madison County Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

Sher and I found another winery to visit north of the place where we were having our big yard sale. The Madison County Winery is, for sure, in the country. In fact without our phone navigation app I doubt I could have found it!

The winery building is a great facility, and it was set up for safe tasting with all the COVID shields.  We tasted several wines, including a couple of blueberry wines, including Blueberry Moscato. They also have one very different wine, a Chocolate Covered Pear Wine. Interesting, but not our favorite.  We ended up buying a bottle of Blueberry wine, and we also got a large Blueberry Moscato slushy to go.

Store and tasting room

This large farm site has not only vineyards, but also an RV park. Local complaints about of all things smoke from their outdoor firepits  have shut down the RV park until permitting is completed. Outdoor concerts are planned, and we look forward to visiting again when we can catch a concert,  enjoy some wine and stayover in our RV.