Chapter 25 – Georgia On My Mind

The trip back to Boston was long and the two couples were tired and slept for most of the trip. They had participated in several additional bar crawls and quickly came to the conclusion that they are not as young as they used to be. Although the other couples were in their age range, Jane, Maura, Gen and Steve all felt like old timers by the time their vacation in Paris was coming to a close.

Before they left Paris, they agreed to wait a few days before talking about their next adventure. Jane wanted to have a more in-depth discussion with her oldest daughter, Lilly, about her sudden wedding that she hadn't shared with them.

After saying goodbye to Gen and Steve at the airport and their short trip home, Jane told Maura that she would like to call Lilly. Maura was a little concerned that Jane might get angry at Lilly now that she has had time to think about the situation. Jane was calm as Lilly went into greater detail as to why she simply went to the courthouse to get married.

Jane and Lilly seemed to laugh during their brief discussion. Jane understood Lilly's stance on wanting to avoid her nonna's advice about her wedding and all the drama that went with that. Lilly loved her nonna but she tried to be just as involved in her grandchildren's affairs as she did with Jane, Frankie and Tommy. Lilly had heard all of the stories from her mothers and uncles and she didn't want to go through with any of that. She just wanted to marry Sal without all the pomp and circumstance that came along with being a Rizzoli. Jane let it be and said that they would find time in near future to come to New York for a visit.

Three days after their return from Paris, Gen and Steve came over from dinner so that they could help plan their trip to Georgia. Maura had printed out the information about the Georgia Wine Highway and had already purchased their 'passports' as they were called. The event's passports would be arriving in the mail within a few days.

Maura had also printed the information regarding the 'Harvest Hosts' program. She had reviewed the list of places throughout the country that honored 'Harvest Hosts' and thought that the sites would be an added adventure for them. The price was reasonable and would add to her love of wine tasting as they might not have visited these places if it wasn't for the 'Harvest Hosts' program.

The site wouldn't give you the exact locations until you join the program but they did offer the basic locations and that was good enough for the four of them to decide joining this program for the year would be beneficial for them.

Gen wasn't surprised at all to see that Maura had done her homework. Jane had always told her how Maura liked to plan their vacations. Gen loved the idea of staying at the 'Harvest Hosts' location and both couples went online and purchase their annual membership for the program.

Jane and Steve had other ideas in mind, they were looking at all the distilleries along their upcoming Route 66 journey. Maura had been busy mapping out the Route 66 trip and researching various activities along the way. One whole side of her home office had clippings posted on the wall describing all the places they could visit. Gen loved her enthusiasm but reminded her that they needed to concentrate on their Georgia trip as it was fast approaching.

"Awe yes, sorry. I am just so excited for our Route 66 trip. I have been looking forward to it for quite some time." Maura said as she handed Gen her binder on their Georgia trip. Gen knew that Maura was detailed orientated but this was almost obsessive. Maura had a binder for every state that they would go through on their Route 66 trip. Gen could tell that some binders had quite a bit of information in them while the others had very little.

"Maura, when we get back from Georgia, I would love to help you map out and plan our trip." Gen informed Maura as she realized how much work Maura was putting into this trip to make sure that the four of them had a great time. She felt that it was only fair to help with the planning plus she wanted to see that great big mind in action. Jane had always told her how much she loved her wife's great big mind. Gen had been friends with Jane for a long time, now she was looking forward to getting to know Maura better.

"I would love that Gen, thank you." Maura stated and smiled. Maura always wished the Jane would get involved in the planning of an event but Jane didn't have the attention span for it. She was a great detective and could be very detailed orientated with her cases. She left the planning to Maura. Maura didn't mind but she thought it would be fun to plan the trips with her. So, when Gen offered, she was ecstatic.

They reviewed all the destinations available for their wine tour. They figured they would visit 15-20 wineries and selected several 'Harvest Hosts' locations that would meet their needs. They figured that they would spend two weeks on this trip.

The first stop in Georgia was roughly a little over one thousand miles away. Traveling in an RV and towing a vehicle meant that they would need to break the trip up. Maura had done the calculations already and decided they should take three days to drive there, everyone agreed. They decided to add an extra week to their trip as they wanted to spend two weeks visiting the wineries.

They agreed to meet for lunch the next day to plan their trip in greater detail. Maura said that she would need to contact their first 'Harvest Hosts' location and make sure that they would be able to arrive on the date that they would select. Maura had used the search feature on the 'Harvest Hosts' website to see the hosts that were available on their trip and found several that were available and then one that she thought would be perfect for their first few days in Georgia.

They had spent so much time the night before talking and eating that their Georgia trip needed an additional day of planning. Gen now understood why Maura liked to have all of the arrangements made ahead of time. They could miss out on key elements of their trip if they just 'winged it.'

They had spent the night before setting up their preferences on the 'Harvest Hosts' website and that is how Maura had discovered the search feature and decided to play with it after Gen and Steve had gone home. Jane was busy cleaning up the dishes so she figured she had a few minutes to play with the search feature.

Maura set her preferences for winery. She liked that there was brewery and distillery option, that would be good for their Route 66 trip as Jane and Steve were interested in brewery and distilleries. They were not much of wine drinkers, but agreed to accompany their wives on the Georgia Wine Highway tour as it sounded like fun and Jane thought maybe she would be able to stop Maura from buying tons of wine. One could hope anyways, Jane thought.

After a nice lunch, the four of them discussed the trip in great detail. They each had a laptop and researched different things while Maura kept the master schedule of what they were doing when. They figured they could visit two to three wineries a day, sometimes more as some wineries were grouped closely together. They were having fun looking at all of the winery's websites and reviewing the types of wines that they produced.

Time got away from them and before they knew it it was 8 PM and they hadn't had dinner yet. Maura looked in the refrigerator and noticed she had food she could cook but they decided to call their favorite Chinese place and ordered food to be delivered so that they could finalize their trip plans. They would leave in less than a week. They would use that week to get the RVs packed and ready for the trip.

One week later, they were on their way. Maura left their itinerary with her mother as she knew she and Angela would worry about them. Gen emailed their itinerary to her children and made sure her children had Maura and Jane's cell numbers as well. They were really looking forward to this trip as it would be their practice run before their big trip.

They had planned to stop in Pennsylvania the first night. They left Boston at 5 AM so that they would miss all of the morning traffic. They didn't plan on sightseeing on this trip. They just wanted to get to Georgia and if they found something they wanted to check out they would stop on the trip back.

They would be passing through New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and Jane figured she had already made love to her wife in those states so she wasn't worried about stopping there. She still had a few states to visit on her goal of making love to her wife in all fifty states. She never forgot about her promise to Maura that she would complete that goal.

When they left Pennsylvania, they passed through the corner of Maryland and then entered Virginia. They spent the second night of their trip in Southern Virginia. They rose early once again and make their way to Georgia on their third day.

They had wanted to be in Georgia before it got dark as they wanted to get set up and meet with the owners of the 'Harvest Hosts' site that they would be staying at. That is exactly what they accomplished as they arrived at their destination at 3 PM and by 3:30 they sat with the owners of their first winery. They proudly stamped their passports and gave them their souvenir glass and served them a sampling of their wines. They hit it off so well that the hosts allowed them to visit their house and offered for them to join them for dinner.

After dinner, they shared their plans for the next few days and the hosts offered for them to return the next evening for dinner as they wanted to hear about their experiences. The hosts clearly stated that they normally didn't have dinner with their visitors but they liked them and wanted to extend the offer to them. They also extended the offer for them to stay for their whole time in Georgia. They provided a list of musts for them while they were here. Their list including eating establishments and places to see in the area. Jane was quick and replied, "Thank you, it would be great to be able to stay here and not have to move the RV for the next two weeks. Thank you!"

"You are welcome, as we stated we normally do not get involved with our guests but the four of you are so nice and we feel a little more secure having retired police officers staying with us." The male host stated.

"Well, I hope we never have to use our skills as police officers while we are on vacation," Gen stated as the female host brought out a homemade dessert.

"Wow, this is an excellent peach cobbler." Maura stated. "Are the peaches grown here on your acreage?"

"Yes, we have a few peach trees out back that we like to tinker with. Some of the peaches become part of one of our dessert wines. I know you didn't try the dessert wines in your tasting but I would be more than happy to offer a bottle to you if you are interested, or I can simply open one right now. I love it and if you do not like it, the bottle would not go to waste." The male host offered.

"I would love to try it." Maura said and Gen nodded.

They spent the next two weeks traveling around in one of the Jeeps as they visited the different wineries and vowed to come back the next year and try some different wineries, maybe even visit every winery on the passport.