Stories

SO folks here are some updates:

We had a great time at the hostel in Whitehorse. One of our favorite people, Mathias from Germany, was quite the drunken joker. After a few glasses of rum he loosened up and asserted that, “you guys invented za hot dog.”

We furrowed our brows, “You mean us, personally?”

He peered at us through his one good eye and, like an iguana, the other eye was doing its own thing. “No, Chicago invented ze hot dog. Chicago is ze best,” he responded in a slurred German accent.

“No, Mathias you invented the hot dog. You are from Frankfurt, Germany. You know, Frankfurter, it’s in the name of your hometown,” we laughed.

“Chicago is ze best. I love Chicago. Big Mac for lunch, pan pizza for dinner, hot dog for breakfast.”

Now that is a delicious day in America.

The next day we encountered Mathias again. Outside the hostel, he trapped Karyn in conversation about global climate change. In an attempt to describe, “vhat ve are doing to ze oceans” he said, “de fishes, ehh… vhat is it ven dey are together?… Tom Hanks.”

A grouping of fish is now officially called a Tom Hanks.

Later, we went to the Yukon Brewing Company. The brewmaster was a retired chemical engineer so you know the concoctions had to be tasty. We had the privilege of meeting a fellow Michigander named Jack. He was quite a hoot. He stood 5’4” dressed in cowboy boots, fishing vest and mighty handlebar mustache.

As another patron entered the brewery carrying two growlers in hand, Jack approached him.

“Tink Tink” He tapped the growler. “You gonna fill them up?” Jack was bent over at eye level with the growler, looking up.

The man with the growlers stared down at him, dumbfounded.

We heart Jack.

Skagway, AK - at some point in history - up and left Disney World. Besides the inescapable tourism (every cruise ship stops there) there was a reality show being filmed. The objective is to hike from Skagway, AK to Dawson City, YT (over 400 miles) in the Klondike rush period clothing and equipment. They were from Quebec so it makes sense. Those Peppers are ridiculous. We wanted to continue south either to Juneau (by ferry) or Glacier Bay National Park (by plane) because our van can’t drive on water or fly... yet. We missed the only ferry at noon and waited for hours in hope that the clouds would part and allow us enough visibility to actually see the glaciers. In preparation for the bumpy ride in the Bush Hawk X-P Karyn decided to take Dramamine. Well, by 3pm our shrinking patience with the weather and our growing disillusionment with the excessive tourism reached the point in which we needed to leave. Karyn immediately passed out from the drug and as a final added insult the pilot called us at 5pm and said that the weather had improved. Unfortunately for us we were two hours north in Whitehorse. Waht-wahhhhhh.