Advertisement
Published: October 11th 2009
DAY 11 - FRI - 25 SEPT
Lena, Karl’s wife, had asked on Wednesday if I wanted to go on a wine tasting tour. Are You Kidding??? So we had planned to go this morning. I was up early, after all I don’t want to miss this. Karl had taken over the chore of having a cup of hot tea for me in the morning. I was one lucky person. Opa had one for me every morning and most nights when we were in Wendover. Karl, Lena and I sat on the front porch and watched the birds and cars as we sipped our tea or coffee. It was a great way to start a morning. Karl’s Mom and her dog joined us shortly. She is a spunky woman. I enjoyed talking with her. Karl is a very impressive guy to know. If he wants something done, he doesn’t pick up a phone and hire someone to do it for him. He studies and learns how to do and then does. He said he had never worked with wood when he lived in Panama. Among other things he owned and operated a Harley dealership when he lived in Panama. When
he moved home to CA he wanted decks and porches on the house so he learned how to build them and promptly did. He also added a room on the back of the house. He added a deck that joined his Moms house to his house. It was cool sitting on the porch. I wish I had some place like this at home.
Pretty soon Karl hollered if we wanted to feed the deer. He has several that come up to the back door and he hand feeds. Now most motorcyclist refer to them as forest rats. But Karl has a wild herd that is tame enough to feed by hand. I was out there but I think my camera bothered them. Karl said he had as many as 17 at a time but today there was just 5. We fed them slices of bread. Lena and Karl knew each by name and the family relationships of them individually. There was an expressed concern that they might someday get hit by cars on the road.
We were gone shortly after feeding the deer. The Jackson area is full of winerys. All with free wine tastings. On route to
the winerys Lena took me through the main drag of Jackson and told me some the history of the area. We drove through some of the other surrounding towns, including Sutter’s Creek, which was founded by John Sutter. John Sutter is the prospector that started the California gold rush.
We found the first winery we stopped at, Tuscano, opened at 10 so we were just in time. I picked up a bottle of Orange Muscat there for my niece for Xmas. This winery had an outstanding patio and grounds. Lena said if she was rich this was where her kids would get married. This winery offered a buffet lunch on Fridays so we discuss coming back for it. Then trekked from one winery to another. At first I was limited on what I could buy then Lena had the bright idea that I could send a box back with Sam on the truck and trailer that was going to head back to KC. Pretty soon they were all a blur, alcohol induced no doubt. Each had its brand defined. One had a reputation for great artwork of wildlife. We were given a glass of wine to enjoy as we
pursued the artwork. It was just outstanding. They framed the stuff right there and offered custom framing to customers. The wine bottle labels were some of the artworks. That was the Charles Spinetts winery. Renwood wines were available in stores and at their winery had pictures of movie stars on the wall with the owner or their wines. Driven winery whose motto was “Its like taking your taste buds for a drive on the autobahn” had the whole car thing going on. Their bottle label was tire treads. Driven was the newest winery we went to, it had just opened this year. Outside their tasting room they had old rusty trucks and cars setting the atmosphere. The paternal head of the family was in the tasting room with his dirty farm clothes on, it set the atmosphere too.
The last winery we stopped at was Bella Piazza. It was vast. There I tasted wine from the barrel. But it wasn’t clumpy or cloudy like Lena said it would be. I wonder if they drained the barrel filtered it and put it back in the barrel for samples. I bought gifts at Bella Piazza for those back home. They had
the best mustard I have ever tasted. It was a sesame mustard, sweet spicy. It seemed like we had been tasting for the majority of the day, but in reality it had been for less then 3 hours. But it was at this stop that it was catching up with me, I had a pretty good buzz going on and requested that this be the last winery. Lean had sampled a couple wines but not very many during the day. After this stop we discussed going home or stopping for lunch. I talked Lena into going back to the Tuscano winery for their buffet lunch. It was a great lunch, the food was okay, but just being there on the patio was so neat. Lena was so nice to take me out for the day! I had a blast.
While we were gone sampling wines Karl had worked diligently on a bracket to hold the ignition switch up by the speedo. When we got there Karl told me he had saved the soldering for me. The tank was removed and the wires were cut the switch was relocated and I just needed to splice in an extension. As I
Tuscano Winery
The outside atmosphere. This is where Lena thinks would make a great wedding venue.was feeding the wires through the forks I shorted one out and popped the 30 amp maxi fuse. BTW, in 2007 they were changed to 40 amp so I got one of those instead, since they didn’t stock the 30 amp. I had the electrical upgraded to the 07 stuff a couple years ago.
Sam was there working with Karl, Sandy was doing laundry and Bill was napping on the couch. Sam agreed to take me to the local Harley dealer to get another fuse. It was 4PM and Karl was heading out to a football game, his son is the high school Junior Varsity coach. Sam wanted some red lenses for the rear turn signals on his trike that he was riding out here. The dealership didn’t have any. We made it out of the dealers for less than $5. I told Sam that we could trade the red lenses that I had on Effie with the amber ones he had on his trike. After all mine were no longer operating as brake lights. We agreed that the following morning we would trade before I headed out of town.
We went back to the shop and installed
Deavers
Most Winerys had a picnic area. One of them charged $5 to use a table. Only one winery served food. the fuse, all was lighting up and seemed to work. Sam asked me to signed some crew pictures he had from Bonneville. Sandy was at the KC Run so some of you know her, I met her while I was in Bonneville. She is a kind heart. She was quite the marketing genius for Sam. I think half the businesses in Wendover have Sam’s picture on the wall. The other half might not have his picture up but are still giving him discounts. I believe it was Bill that had brought a printer so Sandy was in a constant supply of 8x10 pictures. That marketing has followed on to Jackson as pictures are posted at their favorite watering hole and local area businesses. Now they are expanding to autographed pics of the whole crew, so I sign 3 or 4. They headed out shortly after I signed the pics and it was just Lena and I. We had dinner and opened a bottle of wine. The evening ended with Lena and I sipping on wine and watching TV with occasional football updates phoned in by Karl.
As I write this blog I am enjoying one of the bottles of
port we got while on the tour. Forgive the errors in grammar and spelling that are sure to have occurred.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.262s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 58; dbt: 0.122s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
