On The Road To Morocco

Next week, we're off on another bicycling tour - this time we're headed to Morocco. For everyone who saw the movie "Babel", don't worry. We're not going as far south as the American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) in the movie traveled. And I've got medical emergency insurance.

Caren dreads the first part of the trip - LAX to Paris on Air France. She despises Air France. Even buying tix in Business Class hasn't changed her mind.

We connect to Royal Air Maroc (a 737, not a flying carpet) and land in Fes (our first stop). We are spending four nights at a small riad in Fes before linking up with the bicycle tour in Ouarzazate. (Look that one up in your Rand McNally Atlas of the World.)

We should have some internet access during our travels, so stay in touch with our blog for exciting news, laughs, and some good stories.

Making our Own Cult Wine

Caren's cousin Barry (Laurie's husband) got us turned onto Crushpad. What a great startup business!

They purchase grapes from fantastic vineyard plots throughout California and Washington state. You "buy a barrel" from the vineyard plot you want and make your own premium, hand-crafted, cult wine. If you don't mind waiting while the wine ages in the barrel, 18-24 months after you contract for your grapes, you get to blend and bottle your wine however you want. It's like outsourcing your own premium winery.

Barry's going to sell me (I hope) some of the 1/2 barrel of Cab he has aging that will be ready in 2008, and we are buying a barrel of Pinot Noir with grapes from the harvest later this year.

Who thought up this business idea? Who else. A former computer industry guy that got filthy rich during the Internet boom and raised several million in venture capital to start this firm. Then he went out and hired a bunch of smart people that knew a lot about the wine business and created a compelling business proposition.

I think we'll call our wine "The Boys" and slap a picture of Winston and Spencer on the label. Caren says "not."

Building Our Wine Cellar

When you're home for several months, you start to think about fixing up the house. Caren's cousin Laurie inspired us to do some construction.

We had an unfinished storage area on the lower level of our house that was built into the hillside. We used the area to collect all kinds of junk over the years. Caren called it "the ratroom." That's a long story we'll leave for another posting.

Laurie suggested we build a wine cellar. What a great idea!

Finding a contractor was nearly impossible. With all the remodelling and contruction going on in the area (the wonder of home equity loans in action), no one wanted to tackle a small job and most contractors had never built a wine cellar.

Several hours of Google searches led us to Gabriel - he builds custom wine cellars and wine cabinets all over SoCal. What a find! If you are interested in building a cellar, check out his website and contact him. We don't get a kickback. GLR Custom Wine Cellars

Construction started in February and maybe we'll be complete in another few days. We better be. Jordan keeps buying wine and storing it in a spare bedroom. It's almost impossible to open the door because there are so many boxes.

Check out Caren's photo chronology of the construction:
Wine Cellar Construction

After we put all the wine into the racks, I think we'll put our inventory online and link to it from this blog. Keep an eye out for when we do this so you can order your favorite wine ahead of time when you are coming over for dinner.

The End of Tourist Season in Cambodia

I heard from my friend Chanra in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The tourist season has come to an end. The weather is too hot, too humid, and too rainy for many tourists to visit until October.

It was a successful season from a business perspective for Chanra. He made money renting his bicycles to B&R and other tour companies. He also was hired as a guide by several other bicycle tours.

He just led a group of Swiss tourists for 10 days throughout Cambodia. I told him that the Swiss do not tip very well. He called me to say that I was correct. For 10 days, the entire group only gave him US$20.

He should have enough money to last until next tourist season, but he is looking for work to make more money and to avoid being bored. If anyone knows of a job opening in Cambodia for a hard-working, English-speaking (somewhat), smart young man, let me know and I'll pass it on to Chanra.

We have signed up for another B&R bicycle tour - this time to Northern Thailand and Laos. We plan on going in November and stopping for a few days in Cambodia to visit Chanra. Meanwhile we need to get ready for our upcoming trip next week to Morocco.