Singing Waters

So, with the end of Mrs J's medical treatments (and an optimistically good assessment of status), She and I decided we needed to take a day off and go have a bit of fun.  LJW suggested we go visit some wineries in the local area.  Local Area in Texas is roughly defined as the same amount of square miles as in Rhode Island.  

This site says Rhode Island's east/west length is 37 mles and north/south is 48 miles.  This site says the distance from The Burg to Austin via 290 is 78 miles.  The majority of Texas wineries are along or within about 20 miles of that highway.

Not that there's anything bad about RI, mind you.  Just kinda giving a mental picture. 

In any case, having been to most of the "Good" (Greek for "crowded") wineries, LJW suggested one that's a bit off the beaten path, specifically located near the town of Comfort, a thriving metroplex of maybe a couple thousand people, and an awful lot of cattle. 

The winery is named Singing Water due to a creek that ran through the property.  Very nice place, very nice folks,  a quite talented young songstress, a tasty cheese and sausage plate and a very nice red wine* made for quite enjoyable outing.

 

Miss B even had a good time.

She was trying to out "Goofy" her grandfather.  I won hands down!

 

As I went inside to settle up, I noticed a few things that caught my eye.

James Avery has several custom jewelry stores in Texas.  His home and one of his first stores are in "The Burg".  I thought it was interesting that he'd been a pilot in WWII in Europe.

Here is the letter he wrote to the winery explaining the significance of the picture.

Thought that was interesting, crossing the Atlantic with temporary fuel tanks on board.  Lord help them if they didn't feed.  (And I'm sure more than a few crews experienced that disaster.)

So, as I finished reading this, I noticed another picture next to it.

If you'll notice in the top right of the picture, there's a picture of a B-25 on the deck of a ship.  Caught my eye, yes it did.  Right away, I thought of the Doolittle Raid and that this guy from Comfort might have participated in it.

I couldn't have been more right.  I asked one of the staff who was in the room with me what the relationship of Richard "Dick" Cole was to the winery.  The guy that answered was about my age and also retired Air Force.  He said that Mr. Cole had, indeed, been on the raid and that he was born, raised and lived in Comfort (TX) up to and after the war.  The significance was enhanced when he told me that he'd been General Doolittle's Co-pilot on the raid.

Here's a picture of the crew before takeoff.  Then Colonel Doolittle is second from the left,  Mr. Cole is second from the right.

Talk about a brush with history.  He'd been present at the grand opening of the winery.   The owner and he were good friends and the owner is also retired military.  Unfortunately, Mr Cole has passed away.  That would have been out of this world amazing to have met him personally.

As one may surmise, the winery staff has a large former number of former military staff on it, So they are inclined to offer a variety of specials for military and former military folks. They also have a significant collection of "Challenge Coins" and will exchange one of their challenge coins for one of yours.  I believe there might be some "encouragement" included in the exchange.  

 

Excellent place to visit with excellent wines (and the food isn't bad either). As I mentioned, Military Vets get a significant discount there.  Mrs. J and I highly recommend a visit.

Peace out y'all!

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I like the Name

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