October 9-10, 2017 Weggy Winery, Muscoda to Sunshine Orchard, Gay Mills, Wisconsin

We are currently camped at the Weddy Winery. It is a harvest host site, so we can camp here for free if we buy something. They have fruit and grape wines. It is all very good. I love the black current. John got that and a couple of reds. The bus at the Weggy Winery. We are on top of a hill next to the vineyard in a very rural area. It is beautiful, quiet and will be dark at night. We watched the almost full moon rise in the evening. .

On the way here we passed the junction of country roads OO and O. What every woman needs-a purse that you can carry a bag of wine in with a spout on the side under a snap cover. Chickens and a lady bug and a snake at the winery. Pokeweed berries and pears. They grow all the fruit for their fruit wines here.

We went looking for the effigy mounds. They are huge mounds shaped like animals the prehistoric indians built. There are a lot here. We are down by the Wisconsin river. We found out they look like mounds covered with growth and you can't tell wheat they are unless they are mowed-these were not and from the air. But this oak tree was cool. Colors in the trees by the river.

The country around here is gorgeous. Rolling hills covered with hardwood trees with some fall color. In between are large green fields and corn fields with picturesque farm houses. It is very rural here. Since we are in Wisconsin, which is cheese country we went to Meister Cheese Company in Mucado- the closest town and tasted cheese. Yum. We got sweet fire mango jack cheese, wild ginsing and garlic jack cheese, and ghost pepper colby jack.

Fall colors and vineyards. I sat in my chair , sipped wind and worked on my basket. Sunny and in the 70's. A real treat after many , many, many days of rain. 

The view out the front of the bus of the vineyard in evening light. John prepared dinner just in time for us to eat with a view of sunset. What a man.

On the way here we passed through Reedsburg which is having a fermentation festival. John thought it would be beer, but ends up it is things like yogurt, fermented vegetable drinks etc. We also went through some Amish country and saw a baseball game going on. I got this photo off the internet, but it was like this, women in long black dresses and white caps and kids. Interesting.

We are camped at another harvest host- Sunshine Orchards. Besides the orchard they have a huge store. Among their other products they have chocolate cheese fudge in their local cheeses and bacon salsa and lots and lots of apples. And John and Sue as A couple of good apples visiting the Sunrise Orchard.

Lots of apples. The apple statue is from Gay Mills the closest town. It is the apple capital of Wisconsin. They also have a huge apple fest. They have apple cider donuts. Of course John had to sample one. He said he did not taste the apples, just tasted like a regular donut.

Workers sorting apples at the orchard store. John pumpkin bowling in the pumpkin park at the orchards. 

Apple orchards now days are thin tall trees close together . It is easier to pick these, don't need to use a ladder. We went into the closest town Gay Mills. The apple capital of Wisconsin. It was named after John Gay who built the first sawmill here. The population is 491.

Picturesque church in Gay Mills, The Kickapoo River Museum in Gay Mills. The Kickapoo runs through town. It is an extremely winding river. It is 100 miles long, but only goes 33 miles. The museum was closed.

One of the log cabins in the Log Cabin heritage area in Gay Mills. Some tire swings at Sunrise orchards made from tires. One is a tracter an and another a moose, the rest were horses. Kickapoo River and the Kickapoo Stump Dodger Campground and event center. The Stump Dodger was the nickname of the steam engine that ran through town.  

Our view from the bus of the orchards. The top one is our actual view because it is pouring rain, the bottom one is what it looks like outside.