My Bride, our most accomplished and enthusiastic wine aficionado, performed periodic tastings throughout the bottling process to ensure quality and consistency…

Who invited all these tacky people??!!!

Top of the World Highway is nearly 200 miles of a combination of paved, unpaved, nearly paved, usetabe paved and refuses to be paved road that runs from Tok, Alaska, to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.  We have made this trip twice in a motorhome and two previous times on a Harley.  If you’re up for a great thrill-a-minute ride and don’t mind placing your vehicle in continuous jeopardy of being scratched, dented, rock splattered or rammed by the occasional amorous moose, the view is definitely worth the risk…

We then set about the task of bottling 6 cases of wedding “favors”…

Tammy was keeping an eye on things while her sister, Dona (owner of KR&S), was out on the river trolling for that evening’s “catch of the day.”  We have been trekking back to this place every couple of years since we first ate here and met Dona back in 2003…

Home again!!!  Well, at least we’re in the place that feels more like home to us than anywhere else we land after a long summer stay in Alaska:  Happy Bottom Estates, Vineyards and Award Winning Winery…

The bridegroom, being the youngest and healthiest male member of our group, was given the job of corking…

  Although he put on one hell of a show, we were somewhat disappointed with his parade presentation and the deficiency of beads or any of the other throws we are accustomed to catching at Mardi Gras and Saint Pat’s parades in Louisiana…

My brother-in-law was so anxious that we stay here that he built an RV site with electric, water and a sewer connection, plus a phone line and Wi-Fi, especially with us in mind.  And just to make us feel a little more like we’re living in the country, he makes thrice daily runs past our UAV on a revolving array of his vast selection of farm and earth moving equipment.  This morning the show began with a John Deere combine, closely followed by an 80-year old Caterpillar steam shovel and culminating with this fine Kubota loader…

Did you ever notice how the highways in Alaska and Canada all have such colorful names describing the places they either pass through or their destination and yet, when you cross the border into Washington you end up on “The 5” which carries you from the Canadian border in the north all the way to the Mexican border, and San Ysidro, in the south.  Just to add a little flavor to the U.S. interstate highway system, I have taken it upon myself re-name Interstate 5.  Henceforth it shall be known as Camino San Ysidro.  Now THAT sings!  Of course, in no time at all, it will revert to “The CSY.”  Oh well…

Just south of Salem, Oregon on The CSY, misfortune reared its ugly head as the transfer case in our Jeep decided to call it a day…

You spend much of the journey traversing mountain ridges with 360 degree views.  At the end of the highway are the Yukon River and the free ferry to Dawson City…

When my Bride and I first rode into this wayside back in the early nineties, there was one old building that served as a restaurant, saloon and general store…all run by the same person.  The gargantuan chicken had not yet been hatched and the busloads of tourists who now frequent the place were going to more exotic climes in search of adventure.  That was then; this is now…

   Home Again                                                               October 5, 2013

Hope to see y’all at the wedding in April!!!!


(For another look at the wine making process, check our Wine page.)

You wouldn’t think that a 40-foot motorhome towing a Jeep would fit on this thing but we’ve done it twice, with several inches to spare both front and rear.

Our next stop was in Whitehorse and the best food south of the Yukon River in the entire Territory: Klondike Rib & Salmon…

It’s certainly amazing to compare this picture with one that was taken 10 years later and see how little I’ve changed!!  I can’t tell the two apart!  (Zook sez: Put your glasses on, you old geezer, and take another look.)

After leaving the Klondike Highway, we continued southeast along the Alaska Highway, made a hard right onto the southbound Cassiar Highway and then hooked left onto the southeastward Yellowhead Highway.  We saw a fair number of the indigenous furry critters along the way including a rather large herd of Bighorn Sheep crossing the Trans-Canada Highway at Spences Bridge, BC…

I suppose we’re gonna have to drag him back to Nawlins with us so he can see how a proper parade is run.

Getting from Alaska to the Lower 48 this go-round turned out to be much as we had expected with a dollop of high adventure as we neared the finish line.

We headed out of Anchorage on August 27 after depositing a tad more than $900 with Northwest Cummins for a new fuel lift pump on our Urban Assault Vehicle.  Apparently these things are kinda critical if you expect your diesel engine to continue running.  This was subsequent to handing over $700 for an oil change and lube job to this same shop and another $500 to the Allison Transmission folks to repair a transmission hydraulic leak.  At one point we were dealing with 4 different fluid and fuel leaks so we tended to the 2 which had the potential to cause the greatest calamity, transmission fluid and engine fuel, and will take care of the others this winter.

We departed Alaska via Top of the World Highway through the gold camp of Chicken, Alaska…

She insisted on tasting not only the contents of each of the 72 bottles of wedding wine we produced that day but then went above and beyond the call of duty to taste each of the additional 392 bottles we filled.  She certainly takes this winemaking business seriously!

At day’s end we were all pooped, but the “kids” ended up with some pretty unique wedding favors…

They are not supposed to look like that.  After a few roadside modifications to our drive train we managed to tow it all the way to JAWS Gear & Axle in Sacramento, California, and leave it in the capable hands of our future son-in-law to piece back together.  Much like Rumplestiltskin he is demanding one of our children as payment.  We have to hand her over April 26, 2014 in Monterey, California.  We are actually pleased with the arrangement as the kid is getting rather long in the tooth and each year we have to toss a few more shekels into her dowry.

Welp, that about wraps it up for the time being.  We’ll see you all next time we have something worthwhile to tell ya.  Aw, hell, we won’t let that hold us back!  Hugs, CC and Me

Lagniappe: This is a popular term in south Louisiana which means, “a little something extra.”

Last weekend we had our daughter and her “intended,” Jeff, up to Happy Bottom Estate, Vineyard and Award Winning Winery to select a blend of wines to be given to guests at their upcoming nuptials.  Our Master Winemaker, my brother-in-law, created several blends from which they made their selection…