Katy & Wine Trails

(My wife, Kathy, and I used to spend a week-long vacation each year, around our wedding anniversary going somewhere that I planned but was a complete surprise to her - different every year!)

KATY Trail:

One year, we traveled across the state along the KATY Trail; actually we went each day to a city on this trail then spent the day riding our bikes on the trail near that city, then, after sleeping at a nearby hotel, drove to the next city according to my plan.

Before this vacation, I researched the annual bike trip that a biking group rode (though, they biked the whole trail from beginning to end, and, stopped at some hotels along the way). I noted which cities & hotels they visited, and, made reservations for us for our excursion.

We began in Washington, not actually on the KATY Trail, but, in contrast to it, there was a paved path, which was very easy to ride on.

The next day, we drove across the Missouri River to Marthasville, our first stop on the KATY. In Washington & Marthasville, we stayed at little, cozy hotels. Our next stop was in Jefferson City (very scenic by the Missouri River with the State Capital in the background). The hotel there had red carpeting; so, we were hesitant to bring our bikes into the hotel to our room, but, that’s what they told us to do (they were used to the biking group doing it on an annual basis); so we did!

The next stop was in Boonesville, where Daniel Boone’s sons established it. Later, we discovered that our cousins, Leo & Mariann Cipriano, lived nearby. Our last stop was in Sedalia, where the annual State Fair was held. We visited it, though it was basically empty, yet, still interesting to see.

We returned the same way that we arrived, except that, near New Haven, our car had a flat tire. We pulled into someone’s driveway and tried to change the tire but had difficulty doing so, as we couldn’t get the wheel off, with the tire iron we had. Fortunately, the owner of the house whose driveway we were using, helped us change the tire; so, we were on our way home!

Biking the KATY Trail, was so scenic, though, many of the spots looked very similar as most of the trail had trees and bushes on both sides, with occasional windows of farm sights, between the trees. Most of the people, living by the trail, were friendly, though there were a few who were somewhat perturbed by the bike riders coming through their territory.

One particular spot was memorable. It began to rain; this became a storm. God blessed us by providing a shelter at this spot; so, we rested, ate lunch from our backpacks and snuggled until the rain stopped. The shelter had a metal roof; so, while we were there, we listened to the rain playing a song on the roof.

All-in-all, we greatly enjoyed this trip and felt blessed since it was special & unique!

Wineries along Highway 94

My wife and I did not drink much wine before this trip, but, during this week, we visited 17 wineries, along Highway 94, from St. Charles to Washington.

Each day, we traveled to a few wineries for “wine tasting” and bought a few bottles of wine and 2 wine glasses with the winery’s name on them at each winery, then, we’d go home every day and continue the trip from where we left-off the day before, except once, after visiting Stone Hill in Hermann, where we drank a little too much; so, we stayed at the Hermann Hotel that night.

BTW: some of these wineries had several wines; so, the wine-tasting was not only instructive but could be a little risky in regard to the amount of wine we drank, esp., since most of them didn’t have much food available (just cheese & crackers & other small snacks).

This wine trip began in St. Charles at (1) Bella Vino (it has a different name now), a small winery near its river-front area; the next one (2) was located near Highway 94 and Interstate 70 (it was a branch of Stone Hill Winery, alongside of Highway 70, but, it no longer is located there).

Next (3), was a winery, Yellow Farmhouse, in Defiance, a small town, where there were just - 2 large bars, across the street from each other. They were visited by large numbers of motorcycle riders each weekend and many bicycle riders, as there was a stop on the KATY Trail downtown, next to the winery. There were also many locals as well as visitors to the bars, which tried to outplay each other with rock music, and to the winery. So, it included an eclectic mix of folks, primarily on weekends.

We liked this winery so much that we became members of its “wine club” on a later trip, and, stayed at a B&B there.

The next winery (4) was Sugar Creek, south of Defiance; it had a beautiful, large garden area with tables for eating outside.

Augusta, Mo. was the site of the next 5 wineries: (5) Augusta Winery, (6) Mt. Pleasant, (7) Nobelis, (8) Balducci, and (9) Montelle. This area is “wine country”! All the wines from them were very tasty, but, Montelle had the most beautiful view of the river valley (since it was mid-week, there were only a few visitors; though, on weekends, it was setup for over 100 guests).

The next day, we went to New Haven, where the wineries (10) Bommarito (owned by an Italian descendent in an area founded by Germans with French wine) and (11) Robller were located.

The latter was a little more difficult to find, via a side-road off the Highway (but worth it as they all were, and this one seemed to be family-operated). The former’s owner was in the field on a tractor, when we arrived, but, came to meet us in the store, where we had a long talk about the history of his family (he grew-up in S. St. Louis, close to where we did).

This was indicative of many of our experiences on this trip, esp. during the week, when there were just a few visitors - this gave us the blessing of being able to discuss their history & culture! The most popular wine in Missouri is Norton.

Hermann was the location of our next 3 wineries: (12) Stone Hill (the oldest in Missouri and had an extensive tour available, which taught us about the history of vineyards & wineries in Missouri), (13) Adam Puchta (the oldest owned by a family farm), (14) Oak Glenn, and (15) Hermannhoff (downtown).

Stone Hill has a fantastic restaurant with German food. Its tour reminded us that many years ago, France had a disaster of disease in its vineyards; the Missouri vineyards, initiated with ones from France, SAVED THE FRENCH VINEYARDS using grafts from its vineyards! Our actual anniversary (6/12), was in this day!

Dutzow is where the next (16) winery, Blumenhoff was located; after which, the last one, (17) Front Street is found on the river-front of Washington. It took a while to find this last one, since I planned this trip, using info. from a website about Missouri wines, and, it listed the addresses of these wineries, but, Front Street’s address led us to a subdivision (the owners of this house said this happens occasionally and directed us to its actual site).

After a 17 winery trip, we learned a lot more about wine (Kathy likes sweet and semi-sweet; I like them all, but, it’s better to eat some food with the dryer ones). We accumulated about 64 wines during this venture, bought a wine rack as a result, and began a tradition of bringing a bottle or two when we were invited to a get-together at our friends’ homes!