Herding Cats?

This is the year I decided to be more spontaneous. I decided to say "Yes" more often than "No" and I'm quite pleased with the outcome.  Earlier in the summer I was invited to go to the Lake of the Ozarks for a few days with some friends and, since this is the new me, I said "Yes" and then pretty much forgot about it and went on with my summer. I suddenly realized last week that the trip was coming up - this week.

This was a group of twelve (mostly) retired folks and ten of them were related and just finished a family reunion over the weekend. Jeanne and I were the only non-relatives but we fit in okay. I was a little apprehensive. The last time I went on a trip with a large number of people we ended up being stranded in a houseboat on Bull Shoals lake in a three-day rain storm...we stayed inside and watched cooking shows.

This time the weather had been just awful up until the day we left. Temperatures were nearly 100 and the humidity was way too high and heat advisories had been posted for weeks. We had a severe storm on Sunday but the aftermath was cooler temperatures and low humidity -- almost resort weather for our trip. The cool weather lasted all week with only a short rain one night and a couple wandering thunder showers that missed us.

The lake house was very nice and had three floors and three decks. It would sleep about twenty so we had plenty of room. Like most lake-area rentals there were a lot of rules and regulations but nothing too outrageous. It was built into the slope and was shaded by large trees so it was hard to get a good picture of it. The rental expense was in the neighborhood of $2000 but divided up twelve ways it was manageable.

The place also had a very nice dock but we didn't have a boat at our disposal. Sometimes going out on the lake would have been pretty risky if we were not well prepared and experienced. One day there were two small "tug boats" pushing a large dock up toward the back of the cove. Jet skis were everywhere. We were very much at the business end of the lake at mile marker #2 so things were a little crazy at times and as noisy as the interstate.  During the calmer intervals some of us tried to fish off of the dock. I was the only one catching anything and my four little blue gills plus a can of tuna could have made a standard portion of tuna helper. By Wednesday and Thursday the lake was pretty calm and quiet.

So what did we do? Mostly it was talk, drink, eat, talk, eat, talk, drink, drink, talk, talk, sleep -- and then the next day we did it again with some variation. You learn a lot about a group of people in this setting and I enjoyed it all. I don't recall the TV being on much at all. I took my laptop but didn't turn it on. We watched the lake and just visited and relaxed. Some of the group came from Florida and Texas and Kansas so there was a good amount of just catching up with what was going on. Trying to get an agreement on what we were going to do was a challenge just because you had to get every one's attention at the same time. Herding cats was one good description. Meals were casual, especially breakfast, and people wandered in and out at their own pace. Some napped. Some fished. It was really pretty relaxing.

I won't describe the decision process but we decided to get into several cars and go to a couple wineries. Seven Springs Winery is west on US 54 near Linn Creek. We enjoyed the selection that they had for tasting ($7 for 10 samples plus the wine glass) and several bottles of wine were bought. This seems to be a new place and it caters to the lake visitors. There was a nice picnic area and a covered patio and a restaurant --and apparently some ambitious plans.  They have some grapes planted but the vines seem to be about a year old.

We also went to Casa de Loco Winery, located west of Camdenton and not too far from Hahatonka State Park. In fact, the original building was a hunting lodge built in the 1920s and was part of the original "Castle" estate. The place went through a few hands and eventually became a state mental health group home and then came into private hands as a winery. It is on a bluff overlooking the Niangua River and very hard to find...get directions and follow them because you will be tempted to turn back...but don't.

The owner/vintner has this Missouri winery and some local vineyards but he also has at least one winery in California (near Drytown in the Gold mine area). His wines are from Missouri and from California and some are mixed. He doesn't charge for tasting and seemed happy to let us have samples of everything we wanted. His wines were very good -- I can't recall any that I didn't like -- but his Kona Port was excellent. He also had a sparkling white wine that was good on it's own but was even better if you added apricot nectar to it -- like a Mimosa. His Sangiovese was also very good. He sells other wines as well and had a good selection.

The guy is very laid back and seems pleased to have folks visit and learn about his wine and the winery. It is on the national historic register and he has quite an operation. He has several motel units... very plush but inexpensive. He also has a canoe outfitting business on the river. We ordered a couple wood-fired pizzas and had a light lunch.

There was another excursion that took part of the group to do some shopping at Yankee Peddler and other shops. It didn't seem like much was purchased -- we didn't need what they had for sale. 

We all went out for supper on Wednesday night and had plans to play miniature golf but the evening got away from us and miniature golf will have to wait for another time. We did rock out...literally...to some oldies music at the restaurant while we were waiting for our table. It was quite a scene and Elvis and Roy Orbison were big hits. We tried to watch the Perseid meteor shower but the moon was too bright and then it got cloudy. We were too tired anyway.

Since we didn't mess the place up very much, moving out was fairly easy and we all said our goodbyes and were on the road by 10 AM on Thursday. Seems like a good time was had by all.