Day 7 – A theft, a late start, and wineries

Our cut chain lock

We were due to start at 9am in the morning. The day before I had talked with Christy about a tyre that was bulging where it shouldn’t have so she was going to meet us at 9am and switch out the wheel. Just before she arrived I went out to collect the bikes. I got one hell of a shock as neither bike was there. I thought for a moment I was seeing things so went in and asked reception if they been moved or something like that. They did not know a thing

Bison and her calf

I told Christy about it and she came with me to see the gap and sensibly asked questions about whether I had locked them together? Whether I had tethered them to the bike stand? I confirmed that I had done so. The evidence of the chain-lock having been severed by bolt cutters was evident in the bushes nearby. Also it looked like a wreck of a bike had been placed there to replace two very nice bikes. Then Christy returned to Portland to get a couple of replacement bikes.

In the meantime Bev and I both looked up our Travel Insurance policies to see whether our bikes were covered. In Bev’s it was explicitly not covered and in my it didn’t say whether they were or not.

Bev also contacted the Police who took a report. Christy returned a couple hours after leaving and we set up our bikes and were on our way at midday.

Relaxing at WillaKenzie

The ride took us through some of the Oregon wine country. It was quite pretty. There were lots of trees. It seemed to be mixed agriculture with cropping, hazelnuts, some fruit and of course the closer we got to a place called Yamhill, the vineyards started to appear. For the most part they are on the hills.

One of the places that we had been recommended to visit was called WillaKenzie (the name comes from the name of the local soil/rock. When we got to the gateway I was a little unsure about what looked to be a steep climb to the vineyard. Bev decided we would go and she was able to climb the whole way whereas at the really steep bits I ran out of gears and had to walk. I was almost humiliated.

Once we got up there, it was worth the effort. We tasted a flight of pinot noir which were very good and not unlike the Wairarapa pinots. They were expensive though - $US60 to $US100.

I liked this barn which shouted to me the US

It was much more fun to go down the hill. As we continued along the narrow valley that had led to the WillaKenzie Winery more wineries appeared and then we were out into wider plain. The ride then took us through a number of back roads to a small place called Carlton which is a centre for small independent winemakers where they work cooperatively to produce their wine. We stopped for a brief coffee before continuing onto McMinnville. It was getting late by that time and we still had a number of kilometres (miles) ride.

It is as steep as it looks

After Carlton we visited another winery called AnneAmie. It had been recommended as one of the places to go and was even featured in my book on the wines of Oregon. As we rode along the road we admired this rather nice building sitting on of a rather high ridge. Then we realised it was AnneAmie. We hoped that they had the tasting place by the road but no there was a road that went vertically up to the top of the ridge. We decided we should go even if we have to push the bikes up the hill. I took a flying start at it which petered out by they time I had managed about a quarter of the climb. My legs had no more power and there were also no lower gears to get into. The wine proved to be quite nice and given all the effort I added another bottle to my backpack. The ride down was much nicer and I fair whistled down and had to brake when I reached the road!

It was close to 6pm when we arrived at McMinnville having covered 66 kilometres.

The goal - AnneAmie Winery

After showering we climbed to the top of the hotel where they had a rooftop bar. We watched the sun go down drinking yet another one of the locally produced beers.

On every trip we try to go out for one nice meal. A place called Bistro Maison had been recommended the organisers of our cycle ride. It was in a cute late 19^th century house and apparently the chef was or is a transplanted Frenchman. The menu had French dishes and also more American fare. Two special entrées were available and as each sounded great and since both of us were quite hungry we decided instead of sharing to have one of each which we usually do. Bev had the fig, bacon blue cheese entrée and I had a fresh goats cheese and truffle one. Both were extremely good with the goats cheese one my pick. For a main I had coq au vin and Bev had the vegetarian ravioli dish, both were good but not as good as the entrée. They were also huge. I bought a rather nice Angela pinot noir 2014 which was very nice. According to the back label the vineyard had been bought by a South African for his wife who is called Angela.