Saturday afternoon, Kathleen Crapo, a friend of ours from St. Anthony, arrived and the four of us, me, Stella, Bev, and Kathleen, decided that since we did not meet the tour group until 5 pm on Sunday we should do a day tour.  Stella and I let those two do the negotiating with a guide that the hotel recommended.  He came to the hotel Saturday night to make the arrangements.  His name was Josef and he was about our age, spoke very good English.  So Sunday morning, we trooped downstairs to meet him and set out on our day's adventure.  He had been to the US and driven a Ford Taurus and thought he could fit four women in his car because it was the same size.  Imagine our surprise when we are standing in front of a Renault which is about the size of a "clown car" as Stella describes it.  So, because she's the tallest, she sat in the front seat and the three of us were jammed into the backseat.  She hadn't forgiven us yet for that because boy, was Josef a talker.  They were fast friends by the time our 4 hours which stretched into five hours was over. 

The first thing he did was to hand Stella a booklet of photos that had directions so she could be his personal GPS unit.  She did her best.  Kathleen tried to help.  She did her best.  The sisters stayed out of this.  He drove us to the wine country and regaled us of tales from his family history and how the Slovenians lived in the past and how they live today.  We were putting along the freeway about half the speed of the other drivers while he talked nonstop and used his hands to do it.  Both hands were waving around to the point that I couldn't watch.  Other cars and trucks were zooming past us, but we survived it.  We were on very narrow roads and came upon a family and neighbor group who had just finished harvesting the grapes so he immediately pulled over and asked them to show us what they had been doing. Which was fine except they didn't speak english so we had no idea what they were telling us.  They did, however, give us each a glass of wine and fed us.  It was a stroke of luck that we were able to see this operation.  Our guide, meanwhile, was talking to them in Slovenian and when they all laughed, he said he had told them a joke. We're not so sure that they were laughing at a joke but it was very gracious of them to feed us.

We then went to a commercial winery and restaurant for a tasting and lunch.  It was on the top of a ridge and the scenery was wonderful.  By the time we ate lunch, we were going to be late getting back to the hotel, so our guide and Stella got us back to the freeway where he drove like a madman back to the city.  He said the speed limit is 85 mph and he was zooming along about that, probably.  During this time, Kathleen slept, and Bev and I listened as he tested Stella's patience with all his questions about her car, where she lived, etc.  Oh, and when we were at the family wine place, he told them that we were from Salt Lake City and then he turned around and said "Are you Mormon?"  We were so horrified at that question, that we all blurted out "NO" at the same time.  He said that he knew all about the Mormons and asked us if he could have 3 wives.  Needless to say, it was an interesting day.

Then at 5 pm, we met the rest of the tour group and our guide.  Stella told the 26 people that she had never seen before that she's a virgin because she had never been out of North America.  They laughed.  She thought maybe she offended them but I doubt it.  We had dinner together and then had an early night.  I hope to be on this time schedule soon because waking up at 4:30 and not being able to sleep after that is not good.