Willcox Arizona

We found a place about 4 hours from the Mesa Vista Winery in Anthony, New Mexico (El Paso area). This was another Harvest Host location, in Willcox, Arizona along the Willcox Wine Trail! We called ahead and got the ‘come on over’ from owner Sam Pillsbury and punched the destination “Pillsbury Wine Company” into the phone. Willcox is in southeastern Arizona, before you get to Tucson. It is a little town, and these old west town have such old west charm, they would be fun to stop and walk the main streets of, but we were headed out into the valley, to the vineyards. Sam was very welcoming and we felt right at home. Since we are NOT wine connoisseurs we emailed John out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean the link to Pillsbury Wine Company and asked him to pick out a bottle or two of wine for us to buy. He picked out two and we walked up to the tasting room and met Sam and his wine maker (pictured below) Sam was pretty much raised in New Zealand and started his career in film there. He had quite a career in the Kiwi film industry and then he moved to Southern California where he has had a more extensive career as a director / producer of films, one was Free Willy III. Sam was a great host, and autographed the bottles of wine for us. We are excited about one day sharing those with John and Bill!

Sam offered to let us stay as long as we would like, he was such a nice host, but we were determined to head west in hopes of being able to 1. find a place we could stay for ‘a while’, 2. closer to John and Bill in case they could come and join us, 3. a little closer to our ultimate destination of the Pacific and Inland Northwest and 4. get somewhere before the whole country shut down! We found our next destination: Salome, Arizona.

P.S. We are staying healthy, lots of seclusion and social distancing, and eating a great variety of fruits and vegetables. The staying active part has been the hard part. If it wasn’t one thing it’s another! This week it’s working out the kinks of Joanette’s lower back. She’s been hardly able to walk (Sciatic nerve pain) but that’s on the mend and we will be out there walking, biking, and now a little golfing ($22.00 for a 9 hole round, with rental clubs and a cart!).