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High Meadows Vineyard and Mountain Sunset Inn
This was a grand experience. We met some of the nicest people. It was an adventure and seemed to change by the moment. One minute you might be tasting fine wines and the next meeting the family horse or beautiful retriever, Lucky. It is a farm setting with the elegance of any premier B&B. This is a special place with 10 rooms on 26 acres.
Jon showed us where to park the Eagle, beside our cabin, the Glenside, for the evening. We did so and walked back to the main house. Mike couldn't stop taking pictures all the way up, so it took us a while. It really was pretty. The flowers were popping up everywhere.
Rose, Jon's wife, greeted us as we entered and took us to the breezeway. It is an area now used as a combination check-in/office and common area. It is actually an enclosed walkway between two homes (1832 and 1882) that were connected. The detail is striking and unless you were told, you'd never know it had once been outside.
The tour continued to the Patrick Henry Room, where above the fireplace hangs a mirror that had been in St. John's Church in Richmond, VA, when Patrick Henry made his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. Antiques abound throughout the inn and I also noticed the square nails used in the flooring throughout the home.
After the tour, we headed to our cabin. We had a few hours to "refresh" and prepare for the wine tasting at 7:00 p.m. in the main house. Then, we would pick up our "supper basket" and return for a quiet evening in the cabin. When we got everything inside the cabin, we realized why we had been put here. For an experience! Mike is playful and the theme was "safari". All the way down to the iron framed-bed that was purchased from a US Navy Armed Forces catalog, to stuffed lions on the bed, they kept with this theme. It was fun. The hand painting on the walls had been done by Gail Mainke. We put everything away and visited for a while on our private deck behind the cabin. I listened to the hot tub. It almost made me doze off. Mike went back inside to take pictures of the cabin.
We had a living room with sofa, recliner chair, TV/VCR, videos, table and chairs, air conditioner, ceiling fan and a radio. The kitchen had a refrigerator stocked with drinks, microwave, 2-burner stove top, coffee pot, coffees, teas and all the pans you might need. Our bedroom had a queen iron bed complete with mosquito netting draped on the four posters, fireplace, loveseat, 2 nightstands and another air conditioner.
We returned to the main house for the wine tasting. All wines served at High Meadows are Virginia wines and we started with Tuscarora from Stockbridge. After sipping our wine, we were greeted with a very pleasant surprise. There would be no supper basket this evening. We were invited to join the house full of guests in the charming dining room downstairs that still has it's original brick flooring. It just kept getting better.
We visited with folks, talking about our adventures on the road. Co-owner Peter told us of his purchase of the home in 1984, when it had no electricity or plumbing. The Inn opened as a B&B in 1986. He talked about Jon & Rose coming to visit after his first year in business and many times over the ensuing years, never realizing that 15 years later that they would become partners in the business , giving him, and his wife, Jae a much needed break from fulltime innkeeping. Peter had worked with nuclear submarines and was an advisor to England's Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Jae works as an international consultant and was in Yugoslavia during our visit. We look forward to meeting her next time!
Suzette, our chef, was introduced and told us of our choices of entrees for the evening and all the goodies she had prepared. The group made its way downstairs to the dining area. Mike had the Caribbean pork and I chose the rack of lamb. For dessert I had milk chocolate cheesecake.
Afterward, we retired to the Grand Hall for coffee and chocolates and visited more with the other guests. Mike showed them his Sony Mavica, which they all seemed fascinated with, because of the ease of taking photos to disk. On the way back to our cabin, we spoke about wishing we had more time to enjoy our stay here. Many other guests had the right idea.....they were here for a real stay, of several days.
Their busy season is off and running, so visit their Website, make your reservations early and plan to spend more than one night enjoying their wonderful hospitality, lovely gardens and fabulous dining! Dinner is always included in the price of your room at this Inn, so be sure not to miss it and tell them Cruising America sent you their way!
Scottsville, Virginia
A Winding Road * (formerly Cruising America) * 6301 Cotton St., Pensacola, FL 32526 * 850-292-1599 * freedom@awindingroad.net
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