October 23-24, 2024 O'Neill Creek Winery, Bloomer, to Chippawa Falls, Wisconsin

 Chilly 55 and sunny.

Fall colors over the river in Grantsburg that we camped by. We are now at O'Neill Creek winery outside of Bloomer, Wisconsin. 

It was a nightmare getting in here. First the guy had us unhook the truck in the middle of the road near a blind curve, then drive the bus up a narrow steep driveway, and the turn around in a very, very tight driveway. Then it took 6 inches of wood  under the front tires to almost level the bus.  There is about 3 feet from the bottom step to the ground now, the front is so high in the air. John heading into the O'Neill Creek Winery. 

Joe pouring us wine to taste. He makes only fruit wine. 25 kinds. Apple, cherry, blue berry, cranberry, elderberry, etc. and rhubarb wines. I love fruit wines and his were very good. He grows most of the fruit for his wines. Here is part of his orchard.

Beautiful maple tree. John in the rest of the winery's orchards. 

We drove a whopping 35 miles to Connell's Orchards. With the farm store. Another harvest host for the night. Our spot at Connell's orchard by the corn field, and the start to the Halloween scary walks they do on weekends, along with hay rides and various other Halloween events. But tonight it is quiet, dark and raining. Very nice. I hope nothing scary comes out of the corn.

John and his wives at Connell's orchard. John on one end of the tractor teeter totter. I sat down and he raised me up and would not let me down. . .

Lovely fall colors. A mural under a bridge in Chippawa falls by the brewery. 

We took a tour of Leinenkugel's brewing, about the only attraction listed for Chippawa falls. The oldest building at the brewery. They used to make all the beer from this spring, but the demand was more than the spring produced, so they now use city water. The brewery was originally named Spring Brewery. 

Cereal and mash tanks and brew kettle. 

The bottling area. They were not bottling today, Thurs and Fri they clean everything. These are the beers Leinenkugel's  make currently. 

John and I in Leinie lounger. Inside the Leinie Lodge, tasting room and gift shop. We got 5 tickets to taste the beer with the tour. We didn't really like any of them. Summer Shandy, their most popular is a mix if Weiss beer and lemonade, it was really bad. They had a number of similar beers with fruit added like peach and cherry. They tasted like sweet sodas, not beer. 

We had dinner at Sheeley's. John had a skull for a dinning partner. Destination Chippawa falls.