Uno Bottle of Minnestalgia Wine: Messed Up

June 1st, 2008 in Geocaching, Vacations

This weekend, Kim and I joined Natasha, a coworker from my previous job (the same one who gave me the awesome red Swingline stapler), and Chris near McGregor, MN for a weekend of camping and various other activities.

We left Apple Valley at around 6 and got up to the area just after 9. The outdated maps on my GPS took us a roundabout way that led us through some backwoods dirt roads that were heavily traveled by logging trucks which took up the entire width of the lane forcing us off the road. They were probably on that road to avoid the bridge that was out another mile past our turn. We did catch a nice shot of the sunset over a farm along the way though so it wasn’t all bad!

Due to some partially completed directions we weren’t able to find our final destination so we headed out to Bann’s Bar and called Natasha as I had no mobile service until I walked into the bar — isn’t that how it always is? Anyway, the friendly guys at the bar were happy to let me know that the street I was looking for was “out on the point,” as if I didn’t already know that but were glad to call Natasha’s number for me. Natasha and Chris, realizing their mistake before I even called were already on their way to the bar to wait for us there when I called. They met up with us and we went back to the family plot where we immediately cracked a beer and setup the tent. I hung out with Chris and Natasha long after Kim went to sleep and was the first one up the next morning (without going back to sleep).

I spent the day cooking, drinking, cleaning, working around the camp. We drove down to McGregor for ice cream, a geocache, and a trip to the Minnestalgia Winery where we sampled some wines and picked up a bottle of Blackberry Honeywine while Chris got several including a bottle of Lingonberry Honeywine. These wines are amazing. Instead of drinking the bottle and wanting to pass out in front of the fire for the rest of the night, we got energized and crazy. Kim was the first one to start acting nuts and took to destroying a rotting stump with a pry bar which Chris and I helped. When it was all said and done he burned the remaining bit of the stump out and covered it in dirt. One down, many to go…

We ate eggs, sausage and hashbrowns for breakfast; brats sauerkraut, pasta salad, shrimp and pea salad and chips for lunch; and jerk pork, asparagus, and baked potatoes for dinner. Another successful camping cooking outing for me. I really think I eat better when I camp then when I stay at home for the weekend. I didn’t have any complaints but I can always improve on my camping technique. I do owe a lot of my successes to Natasha and Chris for bringing up their full sized propane grill. While my little one will do the trick, it was really nice to not have to worry about space constraints like I normally do.

This morning after a quick breakfast of bagels and some fried spam (for Kim), we packed everything up and were back out onto the highway by 9:45. We made some stops and a detour due to 35E being closed and backing up traffic on 35E near 94 but made it home before 1 PM. We had originally planned on visiting one of the Minnesota Historical Society’s many sites which were free to the public today but after the longish weekend and many miles driven, we decided to eat lunch and take a nap after a much needed shower. After the shower and nap, we talked to Chris and Laura who had a showing on their house today and needed to get out for a couple of hours. They brought over chicken and brats along with some beer and dessert and we supplied asparagus, salad, and baked potatoes along with a bottle of wine and Uno for a nice night together.

I grilled the brats and asparagus outside and baked the chicken in the oven. After downing the bottle of Minnestalgia wine and getting rowdy as hell we hated on each other with a nasty game of Uno. Lots of bitching, weeping and nashing of teeth and of course trash talk occurred with Chris winning the most games out of anyone — jerk ;) While we thought the Lingonberry wine might have been a fluke, we were assured that it was not and found that the Blackberry Honeywine was also pretty fucking crazy. We were all having a great time and decided we need to buy that shit in bulk. Apparently you can get it at MGM locally or have it shipped from the winery in McGregor to your home. The bottles are all in the $9.95 to $12.95 range and are damn good — coming from someone that has never had any wine that was more than $30/bottle and probably never will :)

While we were playing Uno we noticed that the rules mention nothing about drawing cards until you have one in your hand that matches what is currently in play. We played that way for the first two hands and noticed that while the game moved quickly, it was boring as hell. We reinstated what we all remembered as a standard rule as a “house rule” and watched as everyone ended up holding what seemed like 100s of cards in their hand. We also noticed that both the 6 and the 9 cards have lines under them so the line itself becomes quite meaningless. Why bother? Even sober it was tough to determine which one was which and Laura and I spent many long seconds determining if it was indeed a 6 or a 9 that was currently played and how we should proceed.

Anyway, a great time this weekend with all of our friends. Many thanks to Natasha and Chris for inviting us to camp with them and also to Chris and Laura for the great impromptu BBQ this evening.

See all the pictures from this weekend on Flickr here.