To drain, or not to drain, that is the poll question tonight.....

We went on a road trip this afternoon.  Pat was in charge!  A surprise first stop was the Odessa Country Winery, LLC in Odessa, MO.  Google said they were open, they were not!  Next we went to LaBella Vineyards and Winery in Wellington, MO.  They were open but due to Covid they couldn't do taste testing nor serve us a single glass of wine.  Pat selected Renegade Red that said, it "would unleash our wild sides."  It did not. She was allowed to open the bottle and give us 2 plastic glasses and we headed toward the deck with a pretty view of a pond.  It was a sweet red wine, but not too sweet as Pat thought it was ok.

30 minutes later we arrived at Knob Noster State Park, surprisingly enough, near Knob Noster, Mo.  It is an oxbough slough, basically a swamp area.  It is a very wooded area with a few patches of Meadow along both sides of the Clearfork Creek.  It offers fishing, mountain biking, hiking and horseback riding.  We had never been there before.  We have been to many Missouri parks, as they are gorgeous and have great facilities.  One year we went on a state park vacation with the boys.  They had a promotion and if you stayed in so many parks they offered a patch.  I think it might have been in 1995.  It was before we had cell phones and had probably only given a general itinerary.  We stopped at the visitor's center at Dr. Babler State Park in St. Louis and  there was a message from my Mom.  We needed to call Pat's Mom right away because his Dad had died.  Knob Noster isn't a large park, but at the picnic area they had 2 trails, one 1 mile and the other 1.75.  A toasty day but all of the trees helped.

Pat made dinner tonight.  Hamburger with tomatoes, green chilies and taco seasoning served over al dente zucchini noodles.  Poll:  do you, or do you not drain your hamburger for a dish such as this?