By Bob Tagert

Last month sure was a scorcher and it looks like we have another week or so before we see the 80’s again. After all is it the “Dog Days of Summer”! Keep that sunscreen and water bottle near…and check out our feature about the history of these “Days” and some “cool” photos of readers pups.

While I usually write “teasers” about what is in store for you in each issue I am taking a different direction this month. I had a busy month with undergoing cataract surgery, rediscovering an old hang out and tripping down memory lane on our Road Trip. Bear with me…

Many months ago, maybe as long as a year, my eye sight began to cloud up and my long-range vision began to erode. After an eye exam it was determined that I had cataracts. Three close friends of mine who had this surgery – one in the last few months – recommended the doctor that worked on them and I heeded their advice and contacted Dr. John Mitchell of Mitchell & Morin Eye Institute in Vienna, Virginia. I have always been super sensitive when it comes to putting “things” in my eyes – I have always had a tough time just using drops as well. My fears, however, were smoothed over by my friends after their success stories. They were right…a whole new world (one I used to know) opened up. Dr. John Mitchell is amazing and has the tools to perform miracles. I highly recommend this practice. In the aftermath, I have become quite proficient with the eye drops since I will be using them for the next several weeks! The first visit to Dr. Mitchell’s office was the beginning of my trip down memory lane.

About two blocks from the Eye Institute office is the Vienna Inn, the sixty four year old iconic watering hole that I knew thirty five or so years ago…we had to stop in for lunch. You can read about my return to the Inn in this month’s Dining Out column. Spoiler alert…they still serve some of the coldest beer in the DMV and those chili dogs are still the bomb!

Continuing the journey, this month’s Road Trip took us to Lydia Mountain Lodge and Cabins in Standardsville, Virginia. Nestled in the Shenandoah’s in Greene County, this destination was new to us, however, it took us on some of the back roads that we discovered long ago before we remapped our “To the Blue Ridge” distribution to what it is now. The Lodge is relatively new but has the same rustic feel that the cabins have. After reading Road Trip in this issue, I am guessing you will be making a plan to check it out for yourself.

On our way to Lydia Mountain, we decided to take a left turn off of 29 and headed down the old familiar road to Old House Winery. Old House is located between Stanardsville and Culpeper and we had some time to kill before we could check in. I discovered Old House Vineyards over 20 years ago. Patrick Kearney and his wife Allyson and family had just bought a piece of land with a dream outlined in his back pocket. That dream did come true. Today Old House Vineyards has a brewery as well as a distillery. The “official” winery tasting room wasn’t open and, unfortunately, we didn’t get to visit with Patrick but we did check out Kearney’s Irish Pub where we enjoyed a nice flight of their wines and I purchased a bottle of their Single Barrel Select Diceros dark rum to sip on while sitting on the deck of our lodge suite. It “was” very good! The pub is stunning and we will head back there soon.

We spent the good portion of the second afternoon of our stay at Barboursville Vineyards. It was kismet that we ended up in the Tasting Room at a time when longtime friend, general manager and world-renowned winemaker, Luca Paschina was on the property. We have featured Luca and the winery several times in our Grapevine column over the last 37 years. We were lucky enough to meet one of the Shenandoah Valley’s newest vineyard owners, John Noer, as he arrived to get some sage advice from Luca on tending his vines. John’s vineyard is new enough that it doesn’t have an official name. We will look for good things from him in the future.

The last “blast from the past” was the drive by Dulaney Hollow at Old Rag Mountain. Formerly owned by Louis and Susan Cable, it was our go-to B&B for many years in the late 90’s-early 80’s. It didn’t appear that the property is still a B&B and the phone number has been disconnected so we didn’t stop.

As we made our way to Sperryville via Routes 230 and 231. Once back in Rappahannock County our excursion down memory lane was complete.

Take some time in this last full month of summer to revisit some old haunts and encounter new ones along the way before fall rolls around and the holidays start to set in and time becomes short.

Most of all…Stay Cool!