So I was leaving San Marcos, TX this morning on my way to Houston when I passed this sign for Three Dudes Winery. ‘Dudes’, ‘winery’ and ‘Texas?’ OK, I am intrigued. I doubled back and saw that it was open from 12-6. I looked down at my watch and it was 12:30 so I figured what the hell? I didn’t have anywhere to be until 7.
From the street, I wasn’t sure what kind of place it would be, but when I got down the drive I could see that it was adorable back there! It sat right on the San Marcos River and had a great river deck for tastings and receptions and such.
There was a super nice young lady manning the tasting room/gift shop. We talked wine and beer and bourbon (which y’all know is one of my favorite things to talk about). She was very knowledgeable. $5 got you four tastes, so I tried their Merlot, the Cabernet Sauvignon and the “Port” — which obviously wasn’t a true Port as it was made in Texas and not Portugal. The Merlot was actually really good. The Cab was “eh,” but the Port tasted like… like it was made by three dudes in Texas.
Icky Port wine aside, I’m so glad I stopped in. I love the fact that I have a job flexible enough that I can stop in for wine tastings at noon and just keep it moving. I find that when I’m out on the road for a while I have to make it a point to visit cool/cool sounding places to break up the monotony. Otherwise it’s just highways and hotel rooms and trust, they all look exactly the same.
Not 2 miles down the road from the winery, I passed this advertisement and entrance to a skydive operation. If you’ve been to a show of mine in the past couple years you know I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of skydiving. I really want to do it, and it was a major motivator in my decision to try and get in shape (again) this year. But I wasn’t sure how a crashed plane on the side of a highway was supposed to make me want to patronize this dive operation. I mean I get the “there’s no such thing as a perfectly good airplane” sign; I’ve been asked on more than one occasion why I’d want to jump out of one… But a skydive isn’t the same thing as a plane ejection. If that’s the experience they’re selling, then no thank you. I’mma need my plane to make a smooth landing even if I’m no longer in it.