Colorado! Winery! A night in a pear orchard! Ahh

Roger here....  Well we did escape from Moab.  After a short, three-hour drive, we arrived in Olathe, CO in the middle of an orchard and vineyard area.  Trees.  We have not seen real trees in such a long time.

Our home for the rest of the day and night was the Mountain View Winery and Orchard.  As members of Harvest Hosts, we arranged to spend the night in the winery parking lot.

A friendly Irish Setter along with an Irish Setter/Retriever mix, and a Dachsund greeted us as we pulled in.
Bandido and Tequila quickly made friends with the canine crew.

After a quick set-up, we made our way to the tasting room.  These overnight winery stops are so much fun.  Good wine.  Friendly hosts.  No worries about driving home.  Our hostess was Wendy, one of the third-generation owners of the family-owned Mountain View Winery.  She showed evident pride in her wines, and for good reason.  We enjoyed the company of two other couples as Wendy poured us a variety of delicious wines.  Dianne's favorite was the Uncompaghre Red.  Surprisingly, my favorite was a white --- Sauvignon Blanc.  As always, we bought more bottles than we intended to buy, but what fun.  One of the bottles of Uncompaghre Red has been designated for the annual wine and cheese tasting party at our winter home at Retama Village.

With a pleasant buzz, we walked a few steps back to the motor home and took Bandido and Tequila for a long walk around the perimeter of the irrigated orchards and vineyard.  One of the owner's dogs, Seamus (born on St. Patrick's Day) made sure we did not get lost.

The sunset in this bucolic setting was a good one as a few clouds rolled in.  By the way, it was twenty degrees cooler here than in Moab.  We slept with open windows for the first time in several weeks.

We woke up to views of grapes on the vine, took another long perimeter walk with the dogs and made a short, half-hour drive to our home for five days just south of Montrose, Colorado.

Here are a couple views from our campsite at the Centennial RV Park.  Yes, the mountains in Colorado do sometimes appear to be purple.  Alpine scenery, rain and trees.  How refreshing.

The pet picture of the day is a head shot of the Irish Setter at the Mountain View Winery.  What a good-looking dog.