East Coast

We eventually made our way to the wine country on the east coast, coming out of the gorge and central mountains into the wider plains and much less grand peaks of the east.  It looks for all the world like the Sonoma Valley in California, which I guess makes sense given the wine connection.  We stopped at the “i” in Renwick, which turned out to be located in a yarn and crafts store so crowded with a jumble of merchandise that one had to walk a narrow path to get in the door and over to where the proprietress, a thin lady appearing to be in her 60’s, was fussing with some stock.  We told her what we were looking for in a room for two days and she quickly made a phone call, then stepped out into the street with us to give us directions and went back to her work.  
 
Our place turned out to be a B & B in a home up on the hill just above the main road into town.  It was “the Old Mill House” referring to the previous owner, the manager of the lumber mill in town.  The woodwork in the house was fantastic, all native woods, simply but very nicely done. I think Hubert Burton would love this house.  Our host, Robert, is a man of somewhat smaller stature with a neatly trimmed grey goatee and an infectious grin that taken altogether remind one somewhat of a leprechaun (yes, I know, wrong country, but hey, I did see a rainbow here).  He has a Moto Guzzi California in the garage and photos on the wall of him riding it in the Brass Monkey Rally down here, covered in snow.  B&B’s here, as in every other country we’ve been in except the US, are not at all pretentious and are, in fact just what the name implies…a bed and breakfast the next morning.  Here, as in all the others, the room is clean, private and breakfast wonderful.

Robert also has bicycles for hire, but offered free to paying guests of the B&B.   We determined to stay over two nights and use his bikes for a tour of the wine country.

(Brenda on the porch at the Old Mill House)

(A short walk from the Old Mill is the old Cork & Keg....with the only Guinness on tap I've seen so far down here)