We left Bountiful on September 20, 2010 on our way to spend the winter in Mesa, Arizona, via Monmouth, Oregon where we do our "volunteer work" at Airlie Winery. En route we spent time in Pocatello, Idaho with Bob and Theresa Carter, golfing, playing cards and dining at their home. We then headed to West Linn, Oregon to visit with Darla and Linda. We had a wonderful dinner at their lovely home on September 23rd. Linda cooked Salmon on the grill and they taught us how to make Hobo Fruit and cake packets on the BBQ.

The next stop is in Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast, where we met up with Lynn and Jake Whalen for a fishing trip. Due to the lack of fish at this time, we decided to cancel the fishing. We did tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory, had some amazing food and walked some amazing beaches. While in Lincoln City, Mary and Matt Lanning, and Mary Olson camped with us. We spent a day on the golf course and went to a great place for dinner called the Black Fish. This resturant comes highly recommended by Elizabeth Clark, winemaker at Airlie.

The kites that were on the beach were enormous.

You never know what you might find left behind on the beach, like this sand sculpture of a women laying on her stomach with a book and a bottle of wine.

Lynn's sister Mary Duringer met up with us for a day on her favorite beach in Yachats. (pronounced Ya Haats) She taught us a lot about the types of creatures in the water and the shoreline in this area. The first picture is Anemones, the second is Star Fish (they are orange and green) feeding on the Mussels and the third is thousands of Mussels clustered on the rocks.

We have been experiencing a few mechanical problems with the coach and the truck. Mike made an appointment with Cummins Diesel in Coburg, Oregon, near Eugene on Wednesday, October 6th due to a problem with the engine losing power. We also had an appointment with Kendall Ford Service on Friday, October 8th because the drivers side window was having problems going up and down. We spent 3 days in Cummins while everything was repaired. We have now moved on to Corvallis where we are awaiting Mary Olson's call to come and harvest the grapes.

Wow, the holiday season just flew by. If it wasn't for the bone chilling weather we've had in Bountiful I don't know if I would even remember being there. We returned to Mesa on Monday night 1 -4-2010 after a 12 hour drive to get here. Mike was extremely busy while we were home, our renter bought a home and moved out on December 30th, so he had to arrange for new carpet, cleaners and put ads in the paper. We painted a bedroom and hung new blinds in two rooms. We left without it being rented so hopefully that will happen soon. Of course things could not go smoothly, he ordered and paid for on the new carpet and then a couple of days before it was going to be picked up, the Carpet Barn burned to the ground. After jumping through a few hoops the new carpet was being layed as we drove out of town. It is in the 70's in Mesa and we are once again in heaven.

We have been in Mesa for over 2 weeks now and it is good to be back with friends and getting into our winter routine. We attend exercise classes 4 times a week, and play Texas Hold 'em twice a week. Mike has joined the golf team and I go to fused jewelry class. We ride our bikes, enjoy the patio, cook good food and party. Now that we are in a routine it is almost time to go home for the holidays. Depending on the weather, we will going home for the holidays on Friday, November 20th.

Halloween in Las Vegas with the grandkids, Alex, Ian and Tea.

After a couple of weeks at home, we are on the road again. It snowed the week we were planning to leave so we had to watch the advancing storms to pick our depart date. We wanted to be in Las Vegas on Halloween to see the kids and grandkids. When leaving Vegas we wanted to go over Boulder Dam to check the progress of the road and bridge construction. Since 9/11, they will only allow you over the dam after a thorough inspection to determine no one is carrying explosives or other destructive devices. At the check station it was determined that we had locked the truck keys in the truck, so they would not let us go over because we could not unlock the back of the truck for their exam. We turned around and went back to Boulder, called our emergency road service. Our rescuer opened the door and once again we were on our way over the dam. The construction is really progressing and something to see. We arrived at Towerpoint, in Mesa Arizona, our winter home last night, with a dead battery in the truck. Oh well we are here and ready for the next adventure. By the way, it was 86 degrees when we arrived, sure beats the snow and 30 degrees.

Airlie Winery

Airlie Winery-Mary Olson, Owner

Elizabeth Clark, Winemaker



We spent the last 2 weeks at the Winery, as the first shift of the Harvest Crew, along with Jake and Lynn Whalen from Phoenix, Arizona, Bob and Kathy Gray from Prescott, Arizona and Tom Danger from Tuscon, Arizona. The grape ripening was slower than expected. We were able to bring in the Muller Thurgau and Marechal Foch before we left for home. Mary is still waiting for the other grapes to ripen a little more and praying the rain soon stops. They still need to bring in the Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Chardonnay. During the time we were there, Bob Gray along with the Clean Up Crew almost finished a new deck as an addition to the tasting room. The tool shed was re-organized, the Foch and Gris barrels were cleaned in preparation for barreling down the new wines. We picked sample grapes and tested them so Elizabeth could determine if they were ready for picking. We worked the de-stemmer, pressed the white grapes and sent the red grapes to fermentation tanks, innoculated the juice, cleaned the filter, punched down the juice and labled some of the 2008 wines. Mike worked his favorite job, bringing up the totes of grapes with the tractor. One tote on the front end and one on the back end. Each tote holds about 800 to 1000 pounds of grapes.



Last year we helped plant 2700 new grape plants, it was great to see them growning when we arrived this year. It takes about 4 years before they will start producing. Mary now has about 38 acres of grapes.

Elizabeth developed a new wine she named, 7 . It is a blend of 7 different white grapes. It is one of my favorites.


We ate lots of wonderful meals, laughed alot and even drank a little wine. The work has only begun, Jake and Lynn are staying another week and then another crew will need to finish up.

Yesterday we moved to Newport, Oregon. This is one of our favorite places, it is a little larger than Florence but still a small town. A good place to have lunch is called Local Ocean Seafood. There is a great kite store called The Kite Company that is worth the stop. Of course I couldn't leave without buying a new flag. Tomorrow we will be moving to Airlie Winery in Monmouth for our annual volunteer work. Mary called this morning and said we need to come in tomorrow so we can get parked before the wood is delivered for the addition to the tasting room. Bob Gray is currently working on this project. It looks like the picking will start on Monday. Get your boots on it will be really busy on the crush pad next week.