Here is a situation in which we never figured to be: We went for a VinoHike on one of our usual trails. It was about 173°F (78.3C) at the house and we just needed to get up in elevation and cool off for a few hours. It was the middle of monsoon season, but the skies didn’t look threatening, so we gave in to our desires. We arrived at the trailhead and all was well. We hiked in a couple of miles to our VinoSpot, sat down, set out the snacks and popped the cork.
After about half a glass of wine, and solving a few of the world’s problems, we heard a little rumble. “Huh, did you hear that?” we asked each other. We scanned the skies, which were getting a bit menacing, and our wine glasses, and decided it would be bad form to not finish our glass of wine. Besides, “We should probably be ok”. We continued our conversation as we sipped our glasses dry.
At the bottom of the glass we briefly considered a refill when a ground-shaking clap of thunder changed our minds… quickly changed our minds. “Pack it up!”, cried Pat. This is when we were caught out of our element. A half-full bottle? What to do with that? I jammed the cork back in, threw it in my pack and hoped it wouldn’t leak.
The skies let loose and the trail turned into an angry, chocolate-milk-covered, rock-studded Slip’n Slide. The lightening strikes were uncomfortably close. To say we were doing double-time is an underestimate and probably a gross underestimate at that. When the hail started richocheting off our heads, we covered up with our Crazy Creek chairs and kept running down the trail. We made it to the car un-electrocuted but muddy, wet and bruised. We tossed our packs in and pulled off our mud-clodded boots. Whew!
On arriving home, I went to unload my pack and suddenly remembered the half-full bottle of wine. I feared for the worst, envisioning my yellow fleece soaked in red wine. Well, it turned out to be ok, but I would have had more peace of mind if we had our VacuVin Wine Saver cork with us.
Don’t make our same mistake. We are done playing games with Mother Nature. From here on out, the VacuVin Wine Saver hikes with us!