©Meandering Passage - Earl Moore Photography - 2200 Liter Vat - Morgan Ridge Vineyards

I was delighted to see Tom Dills blog post of a recent afternoon visit to Morgan Ridge Vineyards.  Tom had made the arrangements and as he mentioned it turned out to be an afternoon of enjoyable food, good wine and great company.  Bonnie and I were happy to be included.

©Meandering Passage - Earl Moore Photography - 6 Bottles at a time - Morgan Ridge Vineyards

Morgan Ridge is young as wineries go, most are in this part of the country, but in my non-expert opinion they’re making commendable wines and clearly understand both their trade and customers.  For the time being they’re happy being a “boutique winery” although they mentioned becoming a microbrewery in the near future.

©Meandering Passage - Earl Moore Photography - Aging in Oak - Morgan Ridge Vineyards

Most of my photography efforts focused upon details, much the same as Tom although we never discussed it — details from around the winery and those areas we toured.  Neither did Tom mention he’d taken a photo of me taking a photo.  I don’t remember signing a model release? ;-)

©Meandering Passage - Earl Moore Photography - Goat Escape - Morgan Ridge Vineyards

I did manage to capture a few images of “the great goat escape” during our tour.  It was short lived as kitchen scraps soon had the rebellion subdued and the escapees hopping back across the fence.

©Meandering Passage - Earl Moore Photography - Under the Pavilion Roof - Morgan Ridge Vineyards

All of the above are part of the “Wining” story for the day. What follows is my own bit of  “Whining.”

I normally drive a Toyota RAV4.  I keep the smart-key FOB for it’s keyless ignition on a keyring along with various house keys, etc.  For this particular outing we’d drove our little convertible which has it’s own FOB so I just threw it into my pocket along with my normal key ring.

Upon returning home I discovered the RAV4 keyring was missing.  I checked everywhere. The next day we called Morgan Ridge Vineyards and I even drove back there to search the grounds and parking lot — all to no avail.

After a few days we decided it was probably not going to turn up so I begin the process of getting a replacement.  I called the Toyota dealer I’d purchased the vehicle from, the same place I normally have it serviced at — The total cost of replacement $500.  Almost $280 for the remote FOB with encrypted transceiver, a little over $100 for a special lasar cut manual key that works on the doors and fits inside the FOB (ordered from California by VIN number), and local labor for programming the new FOB, my other spare FOB and the RAV4 to all work together again.

I’ve since read there might be cheaper ways…FOB’s on Ebay…professional lock-smiths with just the right equipment or even possibly do-it-yourself software. However, these all could leave you with even a bigger mess and a non-functional vehicle.  I’ve also read for most other makes the replacement of such a remote FOB is about half this price.

The only car keys I’ve ever lost but what a costly lesson — each day which passes the pain grows a little less. :-)

So there you have both the “wining” visit and my personal “whining.”

11 Comments

  1. Yikes! Sounds like a very good outing, albeit an expensive one. Perhaps one of the goats nibbled it out of your pocket and had an expensive lunch! :D

    • Since those FOB’s can be reprogramed and are so valuable I’m thinking now someone might have seen it and pocketed it rather then turn it in…maybe someone who has a Toyota. But I’ll keep my eye on those goats when we return. :-)

  2. I like your wider-angle view of things, Earl. I wondered what you had done with the bottling machine, since that’s what you were shooting when I “caught” you. :)

    Sorry to hear about the key problem. That’s quite an expensive solution.

    • Tom, I should have been expecting to “get caught” since the raptor center outing — “turnabout is fair play.” :-)

      Yeah, I was really sick about the keys when I called and spoke to the Toyota Dealer.

  3. Nice series, Earl. I was told replacing the fob for my 2008 Versa would be $280, but that was five years ago. Wonder what it would run now. Sorry you had to have an expensive lesson!

    • John, thanks. Does your Versa have pushbutton starting? That keyless ignition feature requires an encrypted transceiver chip in the FOB which I believe pushes the price so high…at least at Toyota.

      • Actually it just needs to be within three feet of the key mechanism, at which point you can turn the enclosure like a key (though the key’s still in your pocket). So, not a push-button, sort of the best of both worlds – you can use a key or opt not to.

  4. Ouch! Makes my whining about my speeding ticket pretty insignificant. I agree with Paul, those goats would be a prime suspect. I do like image number 3. Love the light on that one.

  5. Sounds like it was a great outing but then again it’s hard to go wrong when wine is involved ;)