The day that we have been dreaming of, talking about, and planning for over the past eight months is almost here. In five days, on Tuesday, September 6th, we will be climbing into the truck and driving forward into our new life. Even though we are only a week away, it doesn’t seem real. For the last two weeks, we haven’t been winery owners. Still doesn’t seem real. Since we made the official announcement that we decided to close Canyon Wind almost five months ago (maybe not so brilliantly on the day before April Fools); we managed to sell almost a year’s worth of wine inventory, conserved our vineyard so that it may never be developed, sold the winery and equipment, and filled out what must be the equivalent of a 5-foot stack of paperwork. Seriously, if you love paperwork consider getting into the alcohol business. Even after all of that, it’s still hard to believe that we will be leaving in less than one week.
If you had asked either of us a year ago where we thought we would be five, ten, or probably even twenty years in the future, we both would have answered, running the winery. But things change. My dad (Jen) used to tell me back in my younger and single days that one day I could walk around a corner and bump into Fred. Fred wasn’t anyone in particular and the point of his comment wasn’t that I would find someone, it was that you never know what’s around the next corner. It seems that sometime this winter, we walked around a corner and new path lay ahead, one different from what we’d been on and imagined our future held.
We’ve spent that last few weeks getting everything organized and trying to determine what we will be bringing with on our first adventure. This has involved more than a few trips to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and taking full advantage of our Amazon Prime membership. So long as we can fit the remaining kitchen items and last pile of clothes in (Jay has his doubts), we will be all set. On a side note, if you need an exercise in downsizing your closet, we strongly suggest trying to live out of a trailer full-time. Even if you think you don’t have a lot of clothing, just wait until you try to fit it into a trailer closet- no matter how much you have, it will be too much.
Although we are going to endeavor to not try to plan our travels too much, we are organized and motivated by nature…so this might be a challenge. However, we do have our first stops planned. We will be starting our journey at Devils Tower National Monument and then spending a few days exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota where we plan to explore the area; including Mount Rushmore National Memorial (we are huge North by Northwest fans!), the old mining towns of Lead and Deadwood, Badlands National Park, and visit our first South Dakota wineries. From there we’ll head east over a 3 to 4-month period. We will be posting much more frequently once we hit the road and reviewing wines from local wineries, so keep an eye to the website and be sure to sign up for our newsletter.
Now, it’s just a matter of being patient. It’s been more than eight months since we made the decision to close the winery, so how bad can five days be? We’re sure it will be here before we know it; but in the meantime, it’s a good thing we have a closet full of wine.
