We are shortly going to start moving east to Birmingham and Charleston, then onto NYC to make the QM2 and start our adventures in the UK and Europe; so now would probably be a good time to do a quick catch up of the last 18 months.  In many respects it doesn’t seem like 1 1/2 years have passed, but then you start thinking back and so much has happened to us and our friends in this period of time that it makes you catch your breath.

For us we have had a fabulous time and learnt so much.  America truly is an amazing country and our preconceived notions of certain states and areas is put to the test as we travel and live in these new places.  One thing is clear – the USA is without doubt the best country in the world in which to live, and this is from an expat whose love of Asia is still very much there.  However, living and working around the world for 35 years before coming to the US really clarifies your thinking on so many things, plus age has to be a factor in what you want from life/home etc.  The timing on coming to America was good in so many ways and none of it actually planned – it evolved!  I had not the faintest idea that at this time in my life Mark and I would be married to southern belles, be citizens of the USA & UK, and be living in America.  Which of course brings my wife, travelling companion, navigator, and better half, Ann, very much into the picture.  Travels across America would not have been possible, or any fun at all, without her.  As we all know having the right travelling buddy is the lynch pin of travel and Ann makes us a great travel team. Tried and tested with our journeys in Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and China. But, none of these expeditions, exciting as they were, were extended travel of 18 months, which is serious travel indeed.  On the road we have settled in to my driving and Ann navigating while locating places to eat and stay, and handling my tantrums on wrong turns, idiot drivers, and crappy road conditions.  We work well together.  I mean if you can do this much travel as well as setting up home in various locations around the globe, and still remain married and friends, you are good!

We are continually asked where we are from and why we are in TX/AZ/CA/OR.  When we explain what we are doing and what our plans are just about everyone envies us and wishes they could do the same thing.  Occasionally we find a person who has lived a similar life style to ours which is great fun – expat bonding I suppose.  It’s clear that there are the wanderers like us and then there are the home bodies who have spent their whole lives in one spot and are locked into their family/community in such a way that leaving is not an option.  We targeted small towns in which to live on our travels and that has worked really well and confirmed our research that towns of 20-30,000 are great places to live. Big enough to have the facilities needed for a comfortable existence like restaurants, supermarkets, gyms, etc., but small enough to be relatively stress free as far as traffic, housing, and congestion is concerned.  We have found small town and rural America is so different from the large cities with quite a divide socially, economically, and politically, between the two.  In the larger states there is often a north-south / east west divide as well, normally produced by geographical features, which is an added element to the picture.  Very similar in many respects to other large countries like China, India, Australia, and Indonesia where in some instances the above factors are added to by a language divide as well.  That said our small town existence has also clarified what we want from a place to live, and that means downtown Charleston is not the spot!  There are pros and cons on all our recent locations, but basically we have really liked them all, but as of now McMinnville, Oregon is in No1 place.  Could I live here 12 months of the year? – hell no – the weather is crap for 6 months of the year.  It’s that our timing was pretty good and we have a beautiful, peaceful, location in spectacular countryside that is only 10 mins drive from all that we need.  However, to do another winter in Oregon is not up for discussion.  We also think that visiting the wine areas was a great idea as the people are consistently nice and the industry spawns the food that goes with the wine.  Plus of course you learn a lot about wine!  The other aspect is that we decided we needed 3-6 months in any place to really get to know it, and this has proven correct.  After 3 months you have settled in, know your way around, and got to know a few people, but 6 months is probably the best time frame.  Climate is a factor and only staying in Sedona for 3 months threw off the climate travel curve.  Looking back we should have just moved to a different location in Sedona for 3 months before heading into CA and OR in April, that way we would have avoided 3 months of torrential rain in Tualatin!  Mind you the flat and location were good so the wine and food exploration was able to continue and our Barbour’s were well and truly tested.

All our flats and houses have been comfortable and most cases well equipped. However, Ann has had a “cleanliness” issue with most places!  Renting an unfurnished flat in Fredericksburg and hiring furniture was in fact our most expensive stay as well as the most hassle.  But, it worked well and we achieved what we had set out to do. Sedona was the best furnished and equipped house and had stunning red rock views, but there were noise issues being so close to the main road.  Tualatin was a user friendly flat in a great location, but badly furnished and so full of useless stuff we figured the owner used it as a dumping ground for assorted junk.  Mrs Angry Anglo did work on that and got the place in shape!  The McMinnville house is bit tired, but very comfortable. The morning coffee view across the valley is spectacular, complete with the wind sighing in the pines, birds singing, and deer with fawn/s ambling through the garden.  Pretty hard to beat!

Time for a rant.  The one consistently bad aspect of our travels has been the United States Postal Service!  Though we have most of our existence online we have always put in a change of address with USPS every time we moved and every time they screwed up!  We always received our confirmation forms online, but that obviously meant squat as our letters disappeared into the ether. While in Sedona the manager of our Fredericksburg complex called us to say all our mail was piling up – what should they do!  Sedona then ignored forwarding instructions and sent everything back to Fredericksburg!  Unbelievable. The individual post offices were normally very good with helpful friendly staff.  (Small town America!)  The one exception being Tualatin – not a small town. The place was a mess and perpetually understaffed, with one older woman normally being the only person manning a slot.  She was not only rude and unhelpful, but in a couple instances actually obstructive in making her own arbitrary rules!

Our return trip across the country will put us back into strip mall / fast food America, which we all know is pretty horrendous.  However, I’m sure we’ll have our “wow” moments and locate one or two eating gems.  On-On!!

We are coming to the end of our time in the Willamette Valley.  As always time has flown and we are now looking at 3 weeks before we leave Hidden Hills and head back across The States.  Since our Canada trip we have been hitting selected wineries, plus we have had two lots of visitors. The veteran travellers Claire & Jack Tozier came for a couple of nights which is far too short as you really have to pack in the wine tasting and restaurants! However, they did managed to hit one of Oregon’s windows of spectacular weather – warm and sunny with low humidity!  As their time was limited, we arranged their wine tasting at Woodard Wines, run by Jeff Woodard an independent wine merchant whose family was one of the original Oregon Trail settlers.  Jeff is an amazing source of information on Oregon wines and he knows all the small producers who shun the limelight, as well as all the luminaries of the industry.  He did a super tasting for us and obviously impressed Jack who had a case of wine shipped back to Virginia.  Not sure when they will get to drink it as Jack was off to Chattanooga to do their Half Iron Man Triathlon before they headed off to Norway for a week or so!  Jack is my age by the way!  We manage to fit in one good restaurant with Claire & Jack – Thistle. It’s a small restaurant in an old store in downtown Mac, with one of the rooms a fabulous bar serving old-time cocktails.  Outstanding local fresh ingredients are used in their dishes all with an amazing wine list – the Pinot Noir section was 21/2 pages!

The Spruce Goose and others.

The morning of their departure we went to the Evergreen Air & Space Museum in McMinnville, as Jack, an ex-Navy flyer, wanted to see the Spruce Goose, the monster 8 engine flying boat transporter built-in 1947 by Howard Hughes.  Built mainly from birch the plane was only flown once before being mothballed.  An impressive space collection with everything from a V-2 to a Titan II rocket and a Mars Rover.  Found out that drones have been around since 1954!

Visited a few more wineries while putting together the schedule for Jim & Jerrie Bethels’ visit – not a trivial exercise as both are Pinot lovers and experts who have visited the WV before.  With just about all the renowned vineyards being by appointment we had a fun time getting things arranged, plus we fitted in a couple of unknown wineries thanks to Jeff Woodard.  A chance to impress J&J!  Typical Oregon weather for their visit – in other words rain, mist, sun, clouds, and more rain!  However, we did manage to fit in 13 wineries / tastings and 5 restaurants in the 4 days / 5 nights they were with us.  One restaurant was Bistro Maison, an old school French restaurant in an old house on 3rd Street.  Madam, the Chef’s wife, was probably the best sommelier I have come across.  Her knowledge of both Oregon and French wines was encyclopedic!  Needless to say we had a fantastic meal – thank you J&J!  Fabulous fun and Jim loaded up on a bunch of wine, much of it magnums, which bodes well for future visits to their Texas ranch.

As June arrived we suddenly went into 4 days of scorching heat – high 90’F/ 36-37″C – during the day – dropping to the 70sF / 21-2’C at night.  Luckily the humidity was low as our house is not air-conditioned, though we did have big floor fans.  Of course Mrs AngryAnglo complained of the heat – duh – it was fabulous!  Certainly better than the normal 4 seasons in a day weather that is typical of the north-west.  Just like the crappy English weather that I fled many years ago.  The only good thing is that it produces fantastic Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays.

Now is probably a good time to list the wineries we have visited while in Oregon.  As I have said previously one of the reasons of this blog is to act as a diary as I’m certainly not going to remember half of them.  My avid readers can just drool and be envious.  This list is thanks to Ann’s meticulous record keeping. (probably need to do one on restaurants)

Dusky Goose tasting room

Airlie Winery, Archery Summit, Bergstrom Wines, Bethel Heights Vineyard, Blakeslee Vineyard Estate, Brooks Wines, Broadley Vineyards, Cardwell Hill Winery, Carlton Cellars, Carlton Winemakers Studio, Cristom Vineyards, Dusky Goose, Elk Cove Vineyard, Elizabeth Chalmers Cellars, Eyrie Vineyards, Keeler Vineyards, Ken Wright Cellars, Lachini Vineyards, Maresh Vineyards, Maysara Winery, Patricia Green Cellars, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars, Ponzi Vineyards, Potters Vineyard, Scott Paul Wines, Soter Vineyards, Tendril Vineyard, Walnut City Wine Works, Walter Scott Vineyards, Winderlea Winery, WillaKenzie Estate.

The Dundee Hills.

There are around 400 wineries in the Willamette Valley so we have barely scratched the surface, but as none of them are free, and they are widely dispersed over a large area we are doing pretty well.  What is amazing is that out of all the tastings we have done only one has disappointed us – Cristom Vineyard – one of the top ranked wine makers in the valley. It really was a double whammy at the tasting.  The room was crowded and the young lady running the tasting was hopeless, so waited ages for our taste and received minimal information on the wines.  The whites were quite good, but when we were given a Pinot made from 17 different grapes sources that had no acidity, finished mid-palate with no structure we wondered what they were trying to achieve!   However, one of the pleasant surprises has been Pinot Blanc which not all of the wineries produce, as it is point genetic mutation of the Pinot Noir grape – a big part of champagne. An old Burgundy grape that is no longer being grown to any extent, so maybe Oregon can come through on this as it is a really good wine that pairs well with seafood, chicken, and cheese.  However, it is the other Burgundian white that has really rocked our socks – Chardonnay.  There are some amazing wines being made that are so like Montrachet it is staggering.  In a blind tasting against the Beuane Montrachets,   Hamacher and Walter Scott stand a good chance of coming out on top – really.

We really like Mac – an easy town to live in – with beautiful country side and amazing wines. Coming down off our hill on a nice day as we head out to yet another wine tasting, you see the snowy splendor of Mt Hood in the distance; truly lovely.  However, those days are rare as more often everything will be shrouded in mist, rain, and clouds!  Thank God for wine!