"If all the ice in Alaska would melt, then Texas would be bigger than Alaska." Strange as it may seem, I believed that for the first 30 years of my life. Needless to say, I got laughed at when I made the mistake of saying that during my first visit to Alaska in 1985.

Little did I know at that time that only a few months later, I would marry a Sourdough and move to Alaska. Not since the days of the Gold Rush has there been such a Cheechako as I was. I hadn't been aware that anybody in the United States still had an outhouse for daily use. I learned differently; for over two years, I made several trips daily to our "room in a path."

Let me introduce myself, I'm Virginia Lane Bolzern, Cheechako, married to Mark Bolzern, Sourdough. As Alaskans jokingly say, "A `sourdough' is someone who is soured on Alaska and doesn't have enough dough to leave." In reality, however, it means someone who has been an Alaska resident for over 25 years.

The term sourdough originated during the gold rush (year XXXX). During the gold rush when it was not yet possible to purchase yeast, to make bread, Alaskans would culture sour dough. However, since the cabins were wood, heated in the winter and the men often left for long periods to go hunting, trapping, or to town, the sourdough cultures would not survive the cold. So the men would keep little bits of these cultures that they could use to start their dough when the made bread, in the inside breast pockets of the parkas that they wore. As a result, they became known as they smelled--as sourdough.

Mark's family first came to Alaska in 1962 via California after immigrating from Switzerland the previous year. My father's family came to Texas after the Civil War, coming from both the North and the South. My mother also had ancestors in the war, but one of her grandfather's came from Sweden about the time Daddy's family arrived in Texas.

This story started in October 1985. My parents and I traveled to Anchorage, Alaska to a conference our church was having. I met Mark upon our arrival. His self-appointed duty was to help new arrivals with their luggage. He offered to help my parents. While we were waiting for them to register, I introduced myself. As it turned out, I had known both his younger brother and his best friend at college a few years before. A new friendship was born. In his entire career as a "bellhop", Mark only took one tip--me!

Mark was my introduction to Alaska. The next evening after an afternoon meeting, Mark asked me for a date. I immediately reminded him I was with my parents. He said "Bring them along." That really impressed me that he would be willing the take "chaperones" along on a date. My parents opted for a quiet meal at the Hotel and an early bedtime.

So Mark and I set off to see the sights. Anchorage was founded about the turn of the century, incorporated in 1915. He took me to Gwennie's, an old-time Alaska restaurant. It is decorated as an old fashioned roadhouse. Mark boasted of the portions provided by the kitchen. We started off with two Ski Lifts, a drink made with hot chocolate laced with Peppermint Schnapps. Starting a tradition we have continued, Mark and I split the other items. We had a barbecue sandwich, french fries, and a salad. This was plenty so we forewent a dessert.

After dinner, Mark drove me around Anchorage, pointing out things to see. The corner where Mark had a motorcycle accident, the brick fence the people built because they got tired of people landing in their yard after missing the curve, the city sewer station (yes, they do have one!), Flat Top mountain, and the city lights.

That was the start to our relationship. We spent most of the next week together. Mark says he was hoping the match me us with his roommate. Mark would arrange a time when he could get Jerry and me together; then Jerry would fall ill. So Mark spent the time with me to keep the other fellows away. This may be, but before the week was out, Mark and I knew we had something going. However, let's not get ahead of the story.

The following morning after our date, shortly before our meeting was to start, I located my seat which was beside a family named Kreuger. They were a very pleasant-looking older couple. I introduced myself to them. Later that day, Mr. Kreuger and I happened to be talking when Mark came by. Mr. Kreuger grabbed Mark by the arm and said he had somebody he wanted Mark to meet, and proceeded to introduce us. We said we knew each other. Then he made a remark about my being single to Mark so we could date each other. Thereupon we had to admit we had already been out. Mark and I both had our minds set on other people at the time. Mark had someone he was interested in in Alaska.

The following day we ran into each other at a singles breakfast. Mark said "Good morning, Gorgeous!" I though that was pretty presumptuous but decided to pretend not to notice. Later we ended up together when the group when to the Alaska Experience Theatre. We sat together. Enthusiasts claim it to be an excellent show. However, I suffer motion sickness. This film was shot out of an airplane and consists of a tour around Alaska. Mark made me open my eyes just as a cliff dropped away from the plane. I would have beaned him except I was too busy trying not to heave my lunch into his lap. Mark didn't realize how un-nice it is to do something like that. I was really suffering. Even the music was full of motion. I could picture what I wasn't seeing. This time I didn't leave the room because I would have had to climb over lots of people and I didn't want to make a scene. (I did walk out of the Chevy show at Six Flags Over Texas.)

After the film, Mark treated me to a fruit cup at The Pantry, the 24 hour restaurant at the Captain Cook. Among other things we talked about, we talked about the people we liked. We decided that as long as were weren't there with anyone and no definite commitments to our friends at home, we could enjoy each other's company with no strings attached. It was nice to be able to relax with someone with whom we had things in common. Then we parted company and met again later at another singles' activity. I visited with a number of the young men, by Mark insisted on walking me back to my room when I was ready to leave. At that time he recruited me to participate in a hike he was organizing for the following afternoon.

An afternoon stroll up a mountain isn't exactly my cup of tea. However, I was determined to attempt it for the chance to be with my new friend. Besides, I had been promised a nice view of Anchorage. Mark normally would have been among the leaders up the mountain.. However, this time he ;hung back with me, his roommate, and another girl who was a friend of my sister. We were going so slowly that we never made it to the top before out time was up. However, we were having too good a time joking and telling stories to be frustrated. However, we were chagrined when Graydon Drown, who had arrived late, went cruising by and made it to the top and reached the bottom again about the same time we did.

Thursday morning, Mr. Kreuger embarrassed me. There was an empty seat between me and him. When Mark and I parted at my row, Mr. Kreuger stood up and hollered at Mark who had made it to the front row by this time. He plainly told Mark there was an empty seat. Mark waved at him and continued to his seat. So he yelled even louder that the seat next to me was empty and Mark was supposed to sit in it. Mark decided to be obedient; sitting next to me was a fate much better than death. Besides, it didn't look like he was going to hut up until Mark did come sit by me. Later Mr. Kreuger asked us to hold our hands out in front of us. We were surprised that our hands are very similarly shaped. That cinched it for Mr. K. He knew then that we were destined to be married and made no bones about it. He now takes credit for getting us together.

I've always had this theory that couples should look alike--at least look as if they belonged together. Years ago I had a cursh on a young man. One day we were at a restaurant and saw our reflections in a mirror. It just didn't compute! Despite both having brown hair, we didn't look like we went together at all. Thereafter, any time I was out with a fellow, I tried to maneuver us in front of a mirror, window, or something reflective.

The drain stopper on the bathtub in my hotel room didn't close up right. Mark said he would take a look at it. So I didn't have to maneuver Mark in front of a mirror. I was quite impressed that he looked real well with me. I still that that!

My first experience with the real Alaska was when Mark invited me to a dinner at his neighbor's igloo (igloo means home). Noel Matteson is a unique man who embodies the spirit of Alaska. He's one of the most hospitable people I've ever met.

Noel lives in Birchwood, about 30 miles north of Anchorage. This part of Birchwood has an undeveloped area. It's a place hwere people can still build their own home on some real acreage without having to fight city hall.

Mark had tried to give me some idea of what to expect. However, I had to see it to believe it. The roads into the housing area were gravel. We turned off the pavement by a "small plane airport" after crossing railroad tracks. The road cures like a snake several times. Then we turned at the landmark I'd been told to look for--a big billy goat and his opponent, a tire on a rope. The lane into which we turned (at the goat) widened into what had to be the parking area as the road ended at this point. We climbed up an embankment and over the railroad tracks. Proceeding down a footpath through the trees for about a city block, I wondered where the house was. Parked alsonside the path was a large, green truck. Mark modestly admitted this monstrosity to be his. I couldn't imagine what use he would have for a vehicle like that. Only too soon would I find out!

Just beyond the truck was Noel's house. It didn't look like any house I'd ever seen.

By the gate into Noel's property was a rural mailbox with the flag up. I wondered if the postman actually came to deliver mail. Mark responded "That flag has been up for several years, so I don't thing so." Beyond the mailbox was the house. As we entered the door, to the left was a large room 24x24 ft. with a fairly low ceiling. The room had a number of tables with crystal place settings. as it turned out, he was expecting about 50 people for dinner. In front of me was the kitchen. In it was the heating stove made out of a 55 gallon drum. to the right was another room about 18x18 ft with couches, chairs, etc.

Noel lives on 2 1/2 acres with two neices and a nephew. The house is a masterpiece. Homemade, it is constructed of logs, boards, sheet metal, glass, etc. Outside, it looks like a Salvation Army reject. But inside, it is as cosy as any new bride could hope for.

Well, that's Noel's house.During the evening spent a Noel's house, Mark took a group over to his house. This was an adventure. His big green crew cab 1 ton truck was sitting in the unused driveway across from Noel's. Our group piled into the truck. The short drive down the path to Mark's is one I'll never forget. To my untrained eyes, the path seemed hardly wide enough to allow passage. We jounced and bounced down the path. In front of us a tree loomed, seeming to form a dead end. Just as I thought we were sure to creash, Mark jerked the wheel and drove around the tree. Sure enough, the path continued until ending in front of a two story house.

My first impression of Mark's house is a little vague. It was so dark and I was only there for a few minutes. If I had known that I would be coming there to live, I would have looked a little more carefully. I do remember thinking there weren't very many windows. Mark wished to leave the truck at his house so we walked back to Noel's house. It was time for dinner.

Alaskan hospitality is very giving. Nowhere else have I ever been made feel as welcome; by not only friends but by strangers.

Noel served about twenty people using his crystal. It was a delicious turkey dinner. I also believe spaghetti was an entree alternative. Upon our departure Noel presented the ladies with a piece of crystal. Mine, a candy dish, has a place of honor on our mantle.

Tuesday, a group went to the Alaska Experience Theater. This theater has a film about Alaska. The audience sits on bleacher type seats facing a screen that is the size of the whole wall. It was once said that only those with strong hearts should watch the film. The film is enthralling with scenes of Alaska and her peoples. However,the scenes are constantly moving. I held my stomach with my eyes closed most of the time. Even the music was so graphic as to make me sick. If you are the type (like I am) that feels queasy while watching ski films, I do not recommend this Alaska experience.

During a Wednesday afternoon break, Mark took a group on a hike to Flat Top Mountain. Mark and his roommate helped another girl and I up the mountain. We never got to the top. Unfortunately, the rest of us weren't in as good a shape as Mark was at the time.

The end of our week of budding romance was an evening out at Vittles. This restaurant has since closed. The down-home atmosphere was a perfect ending to the week. We had plenty of food. This time my parents and two of Mark's friends accompanied us. We were treated royally. Graydon actied as chauffeur and Jerry insisted on paying. Then we duplicated our sightseeing tour of Anchorage for the benefit of my parents. A dusting of snow coming down was exciting to me. I didn't see much snow in the part of Texas where I lived.

We left Anchorage on a morning flight. Most flights leave Anchorage in the middle of the night. The reason for this is that most flights go toward the East. If one waits until daytime to leave, it is late in the day before arrival at the destination. Mark drove us to the airport to catch our 8 a.m. flight. We arrived at the DFW airport about 6 p.m. It was a tired trio by the time we'd driven the back to my home near Tyler.

When I'd left Alaska, I wasn't sure what turn my romance would take. I was determined not to be the first one to write. At age 30, I didn't want to look desperate. But a short week later, just as I'd given up and written a letter, I received a bouquet of roses. Mark didn't sign the card; the message was "Just because." I thought this pretty romantic.

Needless to say, my flowers were the sensation of the office. At that point I wasn't ready to reveal Mark's existence. I didn't want to look stupid in case nothing happened. Since he didn't sign the card, I could honestly say I had a secret admirer. Mark and I began a series of letters and telephone calls.

NOVEMBER 1985

Before a month had passed, Mark announced he was to be in Las Vegas for a computer trade show and asked if he would be able to come see me. I invited him to come down and we'd go to my parents for Thanksgiving.

He called me the evening before he was to leave Alaska. The big news was that Mark and his roommate had had an oil fire in the house a few days before. Bus I'll let Mark tell you about that.

"...About 1 a.m. I was awakened by a yell from my roommate. I had been dreaming about smoggy Los Angeles. When Doug yelled, I reached out and turned on the lamp above my head. It was so smokey that the bulb showed only dimly.

Coughing heavily, we staggered downstairs and out the door. The fire was mostly smoldering oil, not having yet caught any wooden items on fire. I grabbed one of the fire extinguishers and put out the fire. Then Doug and I went outside, coughed and hacked for a while. (It was about 5 degrees outside that night. Pretty cold to be outside clad only in Fruit of the Loom.)

I finally went back inside, grabbed a shovel and began hauling smoldering gravel outside using the ash bucket. We left the door open to try to let fresh air in and the smoke out. At this point I attempted to go upstairs for clothing but couldn't breathe and had to turn around before reaching the top of the stairs.

The smoke was slowly being replaced by fresh air down by the floor. There was about 2 or 3 feet of fresh air at the ground level. The stove hadn't gone out. We nursed it along trying to stay warm while huddling low enough to breath. We finally made it upstairs to grab clothing about 4 a.m. We took it downstairs to dress, then went back upstairs to punch a window out.

Now that we had clothes on, we decided to go outside where the air was fresh. To our surprise we met several fellows we knew. They told us the neighbors down the creek were being threatened with a flood. They had been moving things while we were huddled by the stove after playing firefighters. There was nothing more that could be done for or house, except wait, so joined the others in rescuing the neighbors' belongings."

That was a pretty eventful day for Mark and Doug. The house was covered with grime. It didn't get entirely cleaned up until some months later after we were married. And I won't make the claim that the house was ever as clean as it had originally been. It's kind of hard to clean all the grime off beams of a 12 ft. high ceiling.

Later that evening. Mark went to a meeting. After being up most of the night and breathing all that smoke, he was coughing pretty badly. Someone approached him and suggested that he should have stayed home if he was that sick--no one else needed Mark's germs. Mark replied, "To get what I've got, you'd have to get pretty close."

Back to my part of the story, remember? Mark had called me before leaving for his trip. Mark talked mostly about the fire during that phone call. I was concerned because he was still coughing. It sounded dreadful! At least it wasn't catching. He planned to leave at sun-up the next morning.

Mark always believed in driving. It takes time but is much cheaper than flying if one has the time and energy. Also, one has a car available instead of having to rent. It took not one but two trips down the Alaska highway for me to understand the fascination of driving. I've only done it twice but am eager to go again.

I didn't hear from Mark again for several days. Although premonitions aren't something I ordinarily believe in, for some reason I was worried. He called from Las Vegas, his destination. My first question after his hello was "Are you all right?" He replied, "I am now, but I totaled my car in Canada."

It was a cold snowy day, Mark had stopped for a few hours rest and was headed toward Watson Lake. He had been driving in a snowstorm most of the way. The road in that area is a two lane road. Both sides has been plowed but only the on-coming lane had been sanded. Therefore, as long as no-one was coming from that direction, the traffic was driving in that lane.

Mark: "It was snowing pretty hard. I caught up with a semi.

It was impossible to get around him. I tried pulling up behind, close enought to flash my headlights, hoping the driver would see mm and pull over so I could pass.

About the fourth time I pulled forward, the truck suddenly put on his break lights. As I tried to stop, I found myself heading toward the rear end of the semi. I was amazed that a truck could stop faster than I could. I decided to turn into the right lane instead of hitting the truck."

Virgina: Then he found out why the truck had hesitated. A snow plow was parked in the righthand lane; the workers were taking their morning break. Mark hit the snowplow at 55 mph.

The workmen later said they had felt a light bump and came to the rear to see what had happened. They found Mark crawling out of his crumpled car, looking for his glasses. They asked "Are you all right?" He replied, "I will be as soon as I find my glasses." One of the fellows reached inside the car and got Mark's glasses. One of the lenses had come out but Mark managed to pop it back in. After putting them on, he noticed the bubble his head had put in the windshield. The snowplow had virtually no damage; the front bumper of Mark's Colt was just inches from where his feet belonged.

They called ahead for the supervisor to take him into Watson Lake, another 50 miles. Mark went back to package up his things so he would be ready when his ride arrived. Upon reaching the car, Mark requlized he was not walking as well as he should be. One leg seemed kind of lame. So he pulled up a pant leg and found a very deep gash underneath his right knee. He asked if they had a first aid kit just as one of the two workers appeared from around the end of the truck with it. The workers looked sick when they saw his leg, so Mark took the first aid kit, pulled back the loose flap of skin, swabbed out the gash and wrapped a bandage around it. It was really strange; with all the damage to his knee, there was not a single cut on the pants. He wore them until just recently when the zipper broke.

The supervisor arrived; Mark's belongings were thrown into the back of the pickup truck and they drove to the hospital at Watson Lake. Mark went in, filled out the requisite paperwork and then was taken to x-ray. X-rays were taken of his head and upper body from several angles. Other than bruises, there was no damage to his upper bodyy, proving one and for all that he has a really hard head. (That's what Mark always says when he tells this story.)

Then he went to surgery. Thge doctor checked out his knee and trimmed the tendons that had been damaged. One was cut all the way through and the other one was only holding together by a thread of tissue. Mark was sitting up watching the surgery being done; he found it very interesting. (Mark and I both have this thing about staying awake so we can see what is being done to us.)

Only a local anestetic was used; Mark and the doctor conversed as the work was being done. Mark's presence of mind to clean his cut was commended; it possibly could have saved his leg. Then Mark and the doctor proceeded to speak of other subjects. The doctor asked what Mark did for a living. The reply was "a computer consultant.~ So Mark was quizzed at lenght about computers. After the wound was sewn up, the conversation finally got to the important thing--payment for services! The doctor asked what was Mark's billing rate. Mark told him $75 an hour. Then the doctor added up his bill at the usual $150 an hour rate and proceeded to subtract the same amount of time at Mark's rate from the bill. So Mark ended up paying substantially less than he would have otherwise.

Mark was given a prescription for a painkiller. JThen the RMCP showed up to question Mark about the accident. He offered to give Mark a ride over to the pharmacy so the prescription could be filled. They transferred all of Mark's "stuff" into the police car. On the way over, the policeman told Mark that there was a Greyhound but that came through twice a week and would be leaving Watson Lake in aobut two hours if Mark wanted to purchase a ticket and catch a ride on it. They weent to the bus stop. Mark was told when he purchased the ticket, that he could ride as far as Dawson Creek and then make the decision whether to take one bus south toward Seeattle or the other towards Edmondton without having to repurchase another ticket. The ticket he purchased was from Watson Lake to Seattle. Then they went to the police station to fill out the official reports. On the weay there, they stopped at the wrecking yard where the Colt had been towed. He took several more belongings out of the car and exchanged the remainder of the car for the price of the towing bill on the condition that upon his return, he could remove the stereo. After filling out the police reports, Mark asked if he could use the telephone to make a long distance call to see about plane flights from various cities that the bus was pass through. It seemed that no flights were to be had that would meet his schedule. Before he was finished the police told him he needed to get ove rto the bus stop. He was given a ride and boarded the bus.

Mark was hurting so much that all he could do is lay on the floor and moan. The pain killers given him by the doctor didn't seem to work. The bus driver wanted to kick Mark off. Fortunately the other passengers disagreed by siding with Mark. This bus trip was quite an eye opener. Evidently the bus running up and down the highway during the wintertime mostly subsisted by passengers who needed a ride because they no longer had a car. All but two of the other people on the bus had been victims of accidents in recent months.

Upon arrival in jDawson Creek, Mark made several more phone calles and found the best flight to Las Vegas would be from Edmonton. Therefore he wanted to change his ticket to go through Edmonton. Despite what he'd previously been told, he was not allowed to change his ticket; he was forced to buy a new one. Since there was to be a day's delay in Edmonton before his flight to Las Vegas, Mark called the minister of the Edmonton congreation of the church to which he belonged. He asked if there was someone who could meet him at the bus station, keep him for a day and then take him to the airport. It was arranged for him to stay with Ray Schwabe, whom he now counts as a friend.

The ride from Dawson Creek to Edmonton, other an interrupted by a few waves of pain, went smoothly. Ray Schwabe, the fellow tasked to pick Mark up, did so, turned out to be a very friendly older fellow. He took Mark home, including insisted upon carrying the luggage Mark had toted tus far. Among Mark's "luggage" was his box of mechanic's tools he always kept in his car (these weighed nearly 150 lbs., a large suitcase, a briefcase, and several sleeping bags which were being used as tote bags for other items that had been in Mark's car. Whenever Mark changed busses, he made sure to supervise the storing of his belongings to make sure they were stashed carefully. One false move, a sleeping bag could have ripped and strewn stuff everywhere.

Ray treated Mark to a nice weekend. Ray jhad once suffered from gout; as a result he had crutchs that he offered to Mark if he would mail them back when he was finished with them. Ray took Mark to cheurch where he ran into several people he had previously known. That evening the church was having an "International" social which included games and dancing. Mark involved himself in both. Of oucre the dancing was mostly hopping on one leg. The girls didn't seem to mind.

By this time the bruises from the accident were real obvious and everyone gave Mark the opportunity to repeat his story over and over again. It was a good way to get attention and sympathy from the girls. Too bad he was practically engaged to me!

(As I wrote that just now, Mark came along, looked over my shoulder, and said he's glad he was engaged to me.)

To make a long story short, the following morning Ray took Mark to the airport to board the plane. Again he insisted on carrying the luggagee. Mark was very grateful; it is difficult to carry a 150 lb. tool box while using crutches (Mark says it's even worse without the crutches.)

For a short while, Mark thought he wasn't to be allowed on the plane. The customs official at the airport noticed that Mark had only a one-way ticket to Las Vegas and decided that Mark should a U.S. citizen.

First, Mark showed his driver's license as identification. But that didn't prove he was a U.S. citizen. Finally, Mark happened to think of an old passport he kept in his suitcase. He never knew why he kept it there; but the suitcase was as good a place as any for it. The custom's official accepted the passport; even though it was expired, he had to be an American citizen to have once had a passport.

Mark was happy when he finally got to Las Vegas. When he arrived, he called a man he'd met on a previous trip. That family was on the point of leaving town but made arrangments when three bachelor friends so Mark would have a place to stay.

Mark's air travels had been on Sunday. Monday morning, Mark registered at Comdex. He was able to get in a little early since he was to be a representative at the Champion Business Systems booth where he was to meet Rusty Fraser.

Throughout the week, he worked the trade show booth with them. People would look at Mark, then come over and ask what had happened.

Mark: "Usually I would jokingly tell them that the last guy hadn't bought our product and we'd have a run-in. Then I'd tell them what happened. It wgave us an opportunity to draw in and speak with people who otherwise might not have stopped."

The reason Mark was working in the Champion booth was that this show was the introduction for a Job costing add-on product that Mark had written for the Champion general accounting system. That's something he'd been working to dvelop for approximately four years previously to this. This was the beginning of international distribution.

By that time Mark had just a little more than enough money to purchse the bus ticket to come see me, and not enough to get home to Alaska. Even if he was able to fly home, he then wouldn't have a car. It's kind of hard to work 30 miles away from your house without transportation. To help him out, Rusty Fraser and Charlie Hagar, the owners of champion, offered him a job as part of their sales staff and a ticket from Las Vegas to Denver. Mark accepted the job and told them he'd see them in Denver, the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend. Then he made a call to a friend in Denver and asked if he would stay with him.

When Comdex was over, Mark boarded the bus in Las Vegas and headed for East Texas. It was about a 32 hour jhourney through Phoenix, El Paso, and Dallas (where he changed buses). There would have been a long delay except he switched to a bus headed for Gladewater. Upon arriving in Gladewater, he discovered that shortly another bus would be leaving for the return trip to Dallas. It would go down the old highway right through Big Sandy. They let him off at the corner of my street. He went to the Vita Nook, a health food store owned by a friend of mine. She offered to let him take a bath and called me that he arrived.

I had expected Mark to call me from Tyler so I could go pick him up. I had a meeting to attend at 11:00 a.m. When I returned he hadn't called, but my neighbor had. I called her; she told me that Mark had turned up at her store. I immediately jumped in my car to go see Mark. When I arrived, he was taking a bath. Mrs. Snyder said Mark had wanted to clean up. He hadn't bathed during the two days he had been on the bus.

Mark spent the rest of the day at the Library with me. He did some reading and moved a stack of books for me. I had arranged for Mark to stay with Perry and Nancy Worthen. The time went all too quickly. I worked Wednesday morning; we left for Lubbock early in the afternoon.

Mark and I had so many things to talk about during the long drive. He had a number of stories to tell about his bus trip. The most horrifying one was of an attempted rape which occured about 50 miles west of Dallas. In the very back of the bus, a woman began to scream. The bus driver pulled over. The man continued attempting what he was doing when the bus driver grabbed him by the scriff of his neck, hauled him to the front and shoved him out the door. It was a desolate area and after making sure that the woman was all right, the driver got back in his seat and drove to the nearest telephone. He told the police where they could pick the fellow up. In such a deserted area, he shouldn't have been able to get very far.

Mark had with him a notebook of essays he had written. It was almost like a journal, putting down some of his inner-most thoughts. I learned a lot about Mark. In turn, I had written a long letter telling about my self and my view on things. We read to each other most of the trip.

It was a very heavy weekend. I don't advise long distance romances. Mark and I hadn't had much time to get to know each other. One week doesn't give major insight into a person's character. We knew that we really liked one another. But at our age, we didn't want to waste a lot of time playing the dating game.

We spent most of the weekend going through the notes of a Marriage and Family class I had taken the previous year. There are a variety of pre-marriage books on the market. We also went through a couple of these. We seemed to be very compatible with similar viewpoints. Mark and I discussed our relationship with my parents. They weren't excited at the prospect of my marrying someone who lived 3500 miles away. However, they wanted me to be happy. We discussed the closeness our family had.

Although Mark hadn't yet officially proposed, one evening we discussed the situation with my parents. We wanted their approval before we made a decision as to our future. They said they weren't happy at the prospect of their daughter moving clear across the country (and then some) but wanted me to be happy so they would back up our decision.

Mark asked me to marry him Saturday evening. Even though we had been talking marriage for several days, it took me by surprise. I sputtered that I would have to think about it. Mark said, "Let me know when you decide." I said that he could always ask me again.

And again he did. My parents and I took him to the bus station so he could catch the bus to Denver. Right before he got on the bus, Mark once again popped the question. I couldn't let him get on the bus without my love. I immediately said yes. Under the glare of the busdriver who was anxious to get started, Mark gave me a final kiss.

DECEMBER 1985

December was a hard month for me. I'd just gotten engaged to an absent fiance. Most of my acquaintances didn't even know Mark existed. I hadn't made a big thing about Mark. I was pretty sensitive about getting older and being still single. If our relationship didn't work out, I hadn't wanted to be laughed at.

Even though we were now engaged, I didn't tell people about us. I was afraid people would think I was jumping into a relationship with someone I hardly knew. At this time I began casually mentioning Mark.

On December 10th, it was announced that our campus would be closing at the end of the school year. Fortunately for me, I had plans so didn't have to worry about looking for a job. But I still didn't tell people I was getting married. I fielded questions by saying I was making plans but didn't want to announce them until I was sure.

Winter break came toward the end of December I headed to Amarillo where my sister lived. Two students from Amarillo and a friend rode with me. Mark flew down to see me and spend the weekend. Afterwards we drove my car back to Denver. Mark arranged for me to stay with some girls he knew. The idea was that we could get better acquainted during my break.

Mark and I had a good time that week. Mark had my car. Every morning he would pick me up and we'd drive to his work. Then I had the car to use during the day. After picking him up in the evening, we would do something fun. One day we rented a couple of video tapes. I fell asleep during the second one--guess I won't ever find out what happened.

JANUARY 1986

A good excuse for my visit was that we could visit car dealerships to look for a car for Mark. He had been doing some looking but it was hard to get around. We decided to go car hunting on New Year's Day, hoping to find an end-of-the year bargain. Mark had purchased a Gold C coupon book. In it was a $100 off coupon at Tynan's; the notation said to negotiate your best deal, then pull the coupon. In the back row, we found a silver Chevette, sticker price $2995. It had a couple of flat tires, a bent bumper and a bad clutch. The emmissions gear was no longer on it. I was embarrassed when Mark started dickering. I hadn't grown up this way. Mark finally got them down to $875, then pulled the coupon. They weren't very happy about that.

We had had the tires aired up so we could take the car on a test drive. That's how we found out the cluctch was flakey. Mark said he never buys a used care that he couldn't find something obviously wrong with it. Having something wrong is usually the reason why the previous owner wants to sell. That allows one to know what needs fixing. After paying the $775, Mark drove the

car over to the apartments where I was staying. (I followed, driving my car.) My hostesses agreed he could leave it their until he could make the repairs. Then we grabbed our towels and swimsuits and headed for Glennwood Springs. This is a hot springs west of Denver. It was a lot further than we expected. Like us, lots of others took advantage of the holiday to soak in the heated water.

After becoming prunes, we headed back to Denver. Mark decided we would stop at Vail for a romantic dinner for two. We munched green colored chips and salsa at the Cafe Colorado in the Doubletree Inn. Instead of ordering entrees, we tried a couple of the appetizers. It was nice to sit back and relax before facing the reality of work the next day.

The evening before my departure, Mark took me to the Wuthering Heights with yet another coupon. Even though we were getting two entrees for the price of one, they treated us the same as more lavishly spending guests. I was impressed.

I went home to visit my parents for a few days before returning to my job at Big Sandy. One day, while talking to my mother, it dawned on me that I had heard about Mark before actually meeting him. The middle Bolzern son, Ronald, had been a student at the college for which I worked during the 1982-83 school year. In fact, he was a library employ. Before one break, I remember asking him if he planned to go home during the holiday. A conversation about his home and family ensued. He told me his family lived in a house his brother had built.

This really impressed me. And when he told me his brother had his own business, I thought "Why can't I meet a young man like that?" Little did I know I would meet and marry the young man three years later.

FEBRUARY 1986

Mark set sales records at Champion before driving back to Alaska. He had an uneventful trip back except for having to buy his own tires back. He needed a spare plus a replacement for a tire that kept losing air. So he decided to go with his tires that had been new when he started the trip in November. He had to go by the salvage yard to pick up his radio; it had been agreed that he could come back for that. While in Watson Lake, he bought breakfast for the doctor how had patched him up. The policman who had been so kind to him was no longer stationed in Watson Lake.

MARCH 1986

APRIL 1986

I went to visit Mark in April. My visit had been planned months in advance. Mark wanted me to come up. We wanted to do some work and cleaning on the house. He figured if I could endure cleaning his house, I would be able to survive after marriage.

As previously mentioned, Mark's house had had an oil fire in November 1985. Ex-roommate Doug had moved moved out of the house about Thanksgiving time. Another friend who was sick and out of work moved in for a couple of weeks. Naturally he didn't do any cleaning while he was there. When Mark returned from Denver in February, he lived there only a few days before moving in with some bachelor friends in Anchorage. Therefore, the house had not been cleaned since November.

I arrived late one Friday evening. At the airport after leaving the arrival gate, Mark suddenly pulled a little box from his pocket. It was a ring box! I opened the box and gasped with pleasure. I'd never seen anything so beautiful--and it was mine. The engagement ring was a solitaire. The wedding band/ring guard has a row of rubies and a row of diamonds which sort of encircles the engagement diamond. Mark said the ring had jumped off the shelf saying "Buy me, buy me!"

Mark had arranged for me to stay with an older lady, Mrs. Hobbs, whom he had known for many years. She treated me so well in this bewildering time. Everything was so new. Although I had been in Anchorage before, being there in preparation to move there put a new perspective on the viewpoint.

We got up early Sunday morning and headed to Birchwood. Mrs. Hobbs had let us have some cleaning supplies. It was going to be a long day.

It was very cold in the house. No fires had been lit since February. The cat greeted us at the door. Mark scurried around gathering materials to build a fire in the stove. While he was busy with that, I climbed the stairs for my first real view of the house. An appauling sight! The place was filthy with stuff scattered all over. Only months afterwards did I tell Mark that I shed a number of tears during the few minutes that passed before he joined me. It was good I had a time to recover and gird my loins for what was to come.

We began to plan our strategy for cleaning. I opted to clean the kitchen. I wanted to know what equipment I was to marry. Trisha Bruss, the nearest neighbor had agreed to come over to help. She and Mark tackled the bedrooms. Basically, they piled the bedlinens into boxes for future washing, vacuumed and dusted. We swept the ceiling of what soot we could get loose. The debris was put in the middle of the rug which we rolled up and hauled out to the truck for dumping. Mark threw away a lot of old computer magazines, including one that was a collector's item. I tried to get him to keep it but he felt it better to get rid of things instead of hanging on to them.

It took two days to "clean" the house. I basically piled all the dirty dishes on the table and took inventory, re-arranging the shelves that served as cabinets. Since water had to be gotten from the creek and then heated, we didn't use much water. Besides, I was going to have to wash every dish in the house. Since no one was going to live in the house for another two months, there was no use washing them only to have them sitting there accumulating more dust.

Mark and I relaxed on Saturday, visiting with some of his friends. We did make a quick trip out to the house to kill time. Mark pulled out his family photo albums and miscellaneous pictures. I had only met one of Mark's brothers before. So it was nice to see pictures of the family and some friends.

I hated to leave Mark, yet in some ways I was ready to go back to wind things up. Besides, I was eager to show off my engagement ring. Maybe now people would believe that Mark really existed!

MAY 1986

The rest of April went very quickly. Mark flew down on Friday, May 2nd. He rented a car at the Dallas-Ft.Worth airport and drove to Big Sandy. It was nice to have a weekend together to discuss a wedding plans. Friends of mine invited us to Saturday night dinner. I wanted Mark to meet as many of my friends as possible.

The reason for Mark coming down so early was so he could go do some work with Champion in Golden, Colorado. On Sunday morning we took my car for a drive. It had been emitting a funny sulpher smell. Apparently sometimes cars do this if they haven't had any good workouts recently. I was quite lonely for the rest of the day after Mark's departure. However, I worked on Sunday evening--that helped to be among my friends.

Mark drove as far as Amarillo that evening, staying the night with my sister's family before driving on to Denver the next day. He saw most if the same scenery he'd seen the previous November. However, this time it was springtime. He got up early the next morning, snuck out and went to a nearby grocery store. Since there wasn't much time to do anything like going out to eat, he thought he'd pick up a few special grocery items that would be a treat to a family on a limited budget.

Friday the 23rd was an exciting day for Mark. We got up early to drive to Dallas to return the rental car Mark had been using. I barely avoided cracking but because I kept dozing off. Mark had been following me; he worried when I begin drifting all over the road. Somehow I managed to get to our destination. The D-FW airport had two car rental locations. We found out later that we were at the South car rental at the same time Ron was at the North rental location. We were turning our car in while he was renting one. Ron turned up several hours later in Big Sandy.

We knew that my parents were to arrive that evening. Brother Chris had called Wednesday evening to say they would arrive also on Friday. My parents and Ron turned up right before dinnertime. I had planned leftovers to help clean out the refrigerator. About 8 p.m. we heard a car. I then got my first glimpse of Mark's mother, grandmother, and youngest brother. I had seen some pictures but they weren't enough to go on. It was wonderful that they were able to come. It was brave of Mark's grandmother to come all the way from Switzerland. Especially as Grandmother Bolzern speaks only Swiss-German. Mark did fairly well understanding her even though he hadn't been to Switzerland since 1975. But she didn't let the lack of English inhibit her from having a good time. I was glad she was able to come.

Sunday, the weather turned rainy. This worried us because our rehearsal was scheduled for 5 p.m. Another couple whose was planning an outdoor wedding at 4:30 p.m. would have to use the hall if the weather didn't improve. It continued to rain. The soon to be married couple called and assured me that since their reception was to be in another building, they wouldn't occupy the Administration building long past the appointed hour. I was skeptical. However, it was really cute how they handled the situation. When the walked down the aisle after the ceremony, they kept on walking--straight out the door. Then the guests were invited to the reception location.

Our rehearsal took a long time but went fairly well. Susan Crissinger and Brad Plumbley came to the rehearsal; they stayed long after we left to get the chairs set up. Mark had figured out a way to get my ideas on paper. We had three sections with two aisles coming together in the middle. As I'm short, I have always complained that I can never see the bride coming down the aisle. Since I'd finally landed a man, I wasn't about to have any guests go away saying that hadn't been able to see. We requested the guests to remain seated the entire time. Then I came down one aisle during the processional; then Mark and I left by the other aisle.

The photographer, Brett Ebright, also came to the rehearsal to take some pictures of the family. I was on pens and needles that his wife's baby would choose my wedding day to make his or her appearance. Fortunately my worst fears did not come to pass. My sister asked me if I was going to be upset if Karen insisted Ryan, her Cabbage Patch doll, being in the pictures with her. I was feeling so benevelent that I wouldn't have cared if a whole family of dolls had sneaked into the photo.

I had made reservations for the "rehearsal dinner" at the Steak and Ale in Longview. Mr. Hal Baird, our minister, joined us. Mark didn't see the need to have a special dinner. However, he agreed that considering our families had never met each other, it would be good to have some quiet time to relax and get acquainted.

The Steak and Ale gave us a big, long table in a fairly private room. We ordered the regular cut prime rib dinner for $8.45. I figured it best to stick to one entree. Mark's grandmother seemed to have a good time. The best laugh of the evening came when Grandma Bolzern suddenly looked at me and said something that sounded like "choochie chaashtlie." As I gaped at her, all the Bolzerns started laughing.

Before I could get offended at all the hilarity at my expense (and I still didn't know why), Mark explained that Grandmother was asking me if I could pronounce the Swiss-German word for "kitchen cabinets." Evidently, one way to tell if a person is a true Swiss is being able to say kitchen cabinets correctly. There isn't any way I can describe how the word really sounds. The English language doesn't have any letters that makes some of the sounds in the Swiss-German language. Swiss-German is not a written language (they write what is called High German). Pronouncing "kitchen cabinets" involves curling up the palate and bringing forth a hoarse, growling noise from the lower depths of the throat. Mark and I had some hilarious times on our honeymoon. Practicing saying "kitchen cabinets" in Swiss-German is one way to while away long hours on the road. I still haven't mastered it!

I don't remember what time we got to bed--I don't think it was extremely late but late enough considering how much we had to do the next morning. On our way back to campus where I had to drop Mark at his booth, we passed the building where our wedding was to be. Susan Crissinger and Brad Plumley were still there finishing the set-up. They worked hard on it; and I believe much of the success of our wedding was due to having good friends like them.

Our wedding day dawned with good weather. We were getting married in the lobby of the Festival Administration Building on campus. I had planned to get there about 7 a.m. to supervise the last minute details.

I'm a very detailed person so had everything rigidly planned. A long-time friend, Ruth Walter, came to my aid a few days before the wedding by promising to play the piano when my pianist needed to go out of town. Fortunately, since she always played "Pomp and Circumstance for the college graduation, lots of practice wasn't needed. Instead of to the strains of "Lohingrin", I wanted to "graduate" into marriage. Kristin Schatz sang "Something Wonderful" from the King and I and "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music.

Sherry Wine and her future husband, Kurt Murrow, set up and decorated the reception. Friends had helped me make cookies and sandwiches for the big day. Jewel Kilgore, Elizabeth Millard, Nancy Blouin, and Ginger Hubbell served at the reception while Arlene Dion presided over the guest book.

Our colors were peach and acqua. Although the primary color of the carpet in the building in which we were married was purple. peach and acqua had been incorporated into the design. The flowers were peach colored and the kneeling pillow as acqua overlaid with lace. I wore my mother's wedding dress. To do so had always been a dream of mine. Mark, fortunately, had a tuxedo. My sister had made an acqua dress. The best man and ushers wore dark suits.

One piece of excitement was one guest came all the way from Alaska. Mrs. Summers arranged her summer trip to her family in Oklahoma to coincide with the time of our wedding. We asked her to sit on the front row with Mark's mother and grandmother. After all, she'd known the Bolzerns for close to 20 years. She also got to be in the receiving line.

People tell us that our wedding was one of the smoothest they had attended. Fortunately, flaws aren't always obvious. The sound system decided to go haywire at the last minute. I think everybody was able to hear fairly well but the video tape wasn't very loud.

But enough of that! Suffice to say that it all went fairly well. I had a good time at the reception saying goodbye to all my old friends. Ginger had fixed up plates for us so we could have something to eat. After most of the guests were gone except the cleanup crew, my mother shooed Mark and me back to my apartment to start the process of getting ready to go and the final packing of the car.

The family soon showed up for the final festivities. My mother had made a special cake for us. We had used it for the centerpiece on the reception table but did not serve it to the guest. We saved that for the family to eat. That was fun! Then we opened the gifts we had received at the wedding. Grandmother Bolzern folded up the wrappings for future disposal. A few we took with us and others my parents took home to ship to us later.

We finally got off about 4 p.m. Somebody took a picture of Mark carrying me to the car. I must say we looked like a cute couple. The car was stuffed to the gills. Fortunately we didn't have far to go that day.

Mark and I had considered staying the night at my apartment and then heading on. However, my parents insisted we should do something special for our first night as a married couple. Since I was local, Mark told me to make whatever plans I wanted. Not very romantic, but it was the most practical. I had always heard of the town of Jefferson but had never been there. It's an old town. A number of the houses had been restored as Bed and Breakfasts. I had gotten a number of brochures and settled on one called "The Pride."

Once we got there and unloaded our suitcase, we decided it was time to eat. We drove all over town looking for a restaurant that was open. Apparently, Jefferson entrepreneurs believe in closing on federal holidays. We finally found "The Black Swan". The manager quickly spotted us as newlyweds and offered us a glass of wine on the house. That was nice and made the evening special. We ordered a chicken dish which we split. The food was really delicious. We were just so tired we could hardly eat. Mark bought me a copy of the Black Swan's cookbook as a souvenir of the evening.

The next morning after breakfast we went to check out. We had a nice chat with the owner of The Pride. She told us that the Black Swan was the best restaurant in town. We finally departed for our northward trek about 10 a.m.

As we drove, we wondered how our families were doing with all the last minute details of cleaning the apartment. My mother later told me that Mark's brother's were arguing about whick was going to do what chore. My mother used a little phychology on them. She came out and asked who was ready to clean the toilet. They quickly got very busy on something else.

Our first night's stop of the coming 6,000 mile trip was to be Amarillo. We got there about bedtime. We had assumed that we would sleep on the couch. However, Sammy was out and wouldn't be returning until the wee hours. Julia insisted that we take their bed so Sammy wouldn't be stumbling across us in the middle of the night.

After breakfast and a little visit, we headed to Denver. About 50 miles north of Amarillo, I discovered that I had neglected to take my blanket off the bed in which we had slept at Julia's. Mark was so sweet. Even though he was kind of disgusted because of all the time we would lose, he willing turned around rather than my being unhappy the rest of the trip. I won't say this blanket is exactly a security blanket like Linus's. However, I'd had it as long as I could remember on the foot of my bed and couldn't imagine being without it--especially when moving to a far away place like Alaska.

We spent Wednesday night in a motel in Golden. Mark needed to do check in with Champion, possibly to do some work. We went to Champion Thursday morning. While Mark worked, I worked on a project I hadn't finished for the library. Mark set the portible computer up for me in the conference room so I could work on it. With a few instructions about the computer and WordStar, I was on my way!

We did that for two days. It got pretty long for me. However, I did get my project finished and a few thank-you notes written. Thursday evening we spent at Dale Wilkin's house. We had arranged to spend Friday evening in Laramie, Wyoming, with Ada and Steve Grabowski. I had attended college with them and had known Ada even before that. The girls, Jennifer and Julia, gave up their bedroom so we could have some privacy.

We didn't travel very far. We wanted to spend some time with the Grabowskis. We went to Wheatland with them; in the canyon we stopped to look at the sheep on the mountain tops. In the afternoon we drove on to Casper.

We decided not to drive all town looking for a motel. The first one we came to off the highway was Motel 6. It was so nice to relax. Mark picked up a coupon at the front desk while when registering; we ordered out for pizza. We decided it would be better to stay in for a quiet even of TV and pizza so we'd be fresh the next day. After all, we were heading to the wilderness of Yellowstone.

JUNE 1986

June 1st dawned bright. We were eager to get to Yellowstone for sightseeing and the awesome sight of "Old Faithful." We arrived about twenty minutes before the Geyser was due to erupt. So we patiently waited. Although I had seen it once before at age 5, it was still an awe inspiring event. I highly recommend Yellowstone National Park as a vacation spot.

Travel guides recommend that campers arrive at Yellowstone before noon in order to get a good camping space. We hadn't arrived until about 4 p.m. but still were able to find a space; it was still early in the season. Mark had borrowed a tent and air mattress from a friend of Dale's. Knowing we might camp a few days, I had prepared for the event by bringing a few utensels. My cast iron skillet was too heavy to box; I had tucked it under the seat. My other preparations consisted of a paring knife, wooden spoon and a spatula. I started dinner while Mark started the fire. We set up the tent together.

It was nice to sleep with the night sounds. I always sleep better away from city noises. The next morning while getting the car packed, 4 buffalo suddenly walked through the campgrounds. That was real exciting! We hurriedly finished loading the car, then drove around the Park. At one point, we stopped and took a walk--us and the wilderness!

From Yellowstone we headed to Arco, Idaho. Enroute we stopped at Blackhawk to visit with Max and Mary Martin. Mark's family had met them several y ears before when they visited Alaska. We ate the remainder of our wedding cake while waiting for them to show up. They came fairly soon and offered us tea to wash down the cake. Although having spent the previous day with our Arco friends, they hadn't heard of our marriage.

We headed on to Arco to visit the Hensons who run a summer tourist motel. They were cleaning and preparing to open for the season. We happily accepted their offer of a free room for the night. We really appreciated a shower, a clean bed, and both dinner and breakfast. Most people wouldn't have been that gracious in having guests land on them without notice.

After breakfast Tuesday morning, we went on to Boise. From the Henson's we had called my friend Elizabeth who had been one of my employees in Big Sandy. In fact, she helped preside over the refreshment table at our wedding. Elizabeth offered us lunch which was also greatly appreciated.

Yakima, Washington was the next stop. As we drove through Oregon, the car became very hot as the afternoon sun streamed through the windows. My big impression of Oregon that it was pretty but very hot. We probably drank gallons that afternoon--or at least wanted to.

Mark had some childhood friends who lived in Yakima. During the steamy afternoon, Mark kept me going with tales of the swimming pool in his friends' backyard. We arrived only to discover that as the children were still in school, the pool had not yet been filled. However, we were plied with glasses of iced tea. And given a big, lovely private basement room for the night.

On Wednesday morning, we headed for British Columbia. But as we were in still in Washinton, we headed first to Seattle and the Space Needle. Mark had visited it several years before when passing through. We didn't go up to the top as they were doing some remodeling. However, we did get to ride the roller coaster. I bought postcards in the gift shop. I wanted to be able to write a few more people before we got into Canada where I'd have to buy Canadian postage stamps.

I wrote them and then promptly forgot them until just before arriving at the border station. Mark did a U-Turn which put up on the other side of the road. We were in the no-man's land between Canada and the United States; therefore, we had to go through the U.S. gate to be readmitted into the U.S. even though we had never actually gotten into Canada. We got out our drivers licences and explained to the guard that we hadn't yet been into Canada; that we wanted to mail our postcards before going crossing the border.

Then I had one of the most amusing, yet humiliating, moments of my life. Although accepting our story, the guard still had to ask all the usual questions. He then looked into our backseat. The contents had become quite jumbled since packing the car 9 days before. He asked "What's this mess?" My embarrassment was almost as bad as it would be if my minister had walked into my house without phoning ahead. I had to admit that the "mess" was most of my earthly belongings.

Despite my embarrassment, we did get the postcards mailed and headed back to the Canadian border station. As we drew near, an attendant walked toward us. We immediately groaned because that meant we were the car chosen to be searched. We were looked at and asked lots of questions. However, the guard only poked into various places without emptying the car. We had a tense moment when she started pulling on a blanket--I suddenly realized that was the blanket in which we had wrapped the two bottles of Adam Albert wine Mark's younger brother had brought us from Germany. Fortunately, the grape wasn't spilled and we were allowed to proceed.

It wasn't too far from the border on into Vancouver, British Colubia. Mark originally had intended for our toute to go through Alberta instead of entering through Vancouver. However, I put a kink in those plans by insisting on visiting Expo 86. It wasn't every day a person had the chance to go to a world's fair!

We were really impressed with Vancouver. They had really prepared for the influx of visitors. The locals were very friendly and helpful. Severl times, as we would be sitting at a red light pouring over the map, we would hear a honk and someone would ask if we needed directions. That made us feel welcome instead of feeling like a newsance.

A friend of mine lived in Vancouver. She had made arrangements for a place for us to stay with a ffriend of hers who was running a bed and breakfast. Because of teh shortage of houseing, doing this duirng the year of Expo was quite common as a way of earning money; it was also helpful to visitors and was cheaper than paying for a hotel. Not to mention, more pleasant. Soon after we arrived, we heard the tinkle of the bell of an icecream truck. One of our wedding presents had been some Canadian coins. These we spent on an icecream bar.

We got up bright an early the next morning to head to Expo. During the drive over, we discussed our "plan of attack." Mark hadn't known it when I first brought up the subject altering his plans so we could go to Expo. Every since we had become engaged, I had been saving money received back on rebates. During the 5 1/2 months of our engagement, I had managed to save $52.00. We had two choices. Get inside the gates two separate days and not have the money to do anything fun. Or two go for one long day from open to close and have enough extra money to buy souveniers, ride the roller coaster, and snack a little. We chose the latter option because it would be more fun. Besides, we really wanted to buy matching t-shirts.

(Buying matching t-shirts has become a tradition.)

Upon arrival, we walked around and cased the joint. We wanted to know what there was to see beforre we started seeing it. We stood in a couple of lines to go inside pavilions (exhibits by various countries). But we quickly decided that we'd be in lines all day and not get the whole area covered. So we decided not to stand in any long lines.

One of the first things we did was to watch the chain saw demonstration. The man was an artist. I would never have believed that one could take a hunk of wood and make i look like something. Well, maybe with a chisel, but a chain saw is not the easiest tyhing to use. But is sure is fast!

Further down the "road", we came upon a food tasting booth. We mssed most of the demonstration, arriving just in time for the footh. Ever taste Hargas? Mark was trying to figure out what it was. The man next to me confirmed my guess that it was liver about the same time Mark had decided it wasn't something he was going to eat. So I got to eat to my heart's content. There are occasions that it is convenient that one of us likes liver.

A group of loggers put in a demonstation . We really enjoyed that. They, also were artists with chain saws. One made a little chair out of a block of wood and presented it to a child in the audience whose birthday it was that day. The demonstration area included a large pond. There was a log rolling contest; two loggers got on two ends of a log and started it spinning. The idea was that the man who stayed on the longest won--that is, the man who fell in the water first was the loser. There was also a pole climb.

Mark and I both enjoy going on roller coasters. A big one was set up for Expo. This was the only ride we went on. There was a long wait, but it was worth it!

We had packed a lunch to eat. However we needed drinks. We got our hands stamped so we could go and and come back in without buying another ticket. We walked over to the McDonalds near the Expo site. There was bought rootbeer--the other option for a cola type drink was "New" Coke, something to which Mark and I both have an aversion. Later in the mid-afternoon, we splurged and tried a belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream.

Then we went to the t-shirt store to start our tradion.

About 5 p.m., the crowds began to thin. At this time, we started going to the pavilions. No longer was the wait in lines unbearably long. The Swiss pavilion was one of the first we went to. Since Mark is Swiss, we certainly lweren't going to miss that one. Thye had trains and various kinds of intricate machinery on display. Mark got to speak a few words of Swissgerman.

After the Swiss pavilion, we went to the Japanese pavilion. They had some futuristic automobiles; the emphasis of the show was on manufacturing and engineering.

IBM had an information booth containing a touch screen monitor with infomration about Expo and how to find things. Mark though this was interesting until he figured out how it worked. I had never seen some of these even though now I use one when I go to the mall.

One of the most intesting exhibits was the Soviet space station. It was set up outside their pavilion and was an excellent attention getter. We were allowed to go inside and see how they would actually live. Life must be interesting in zero gravity. We were most interested in the toilet area. Imagine having to do your thing into an apparatus which was on the end of what resembled a vacuum cleaner hose. This apparently worked well for both genders.

I believe it was the Province of Ontario that had a 3 dimentional film showing us the beautities of the province. We were handed 3-D glasses at the door. The film was really exciting. One felt like we were actually "right there."

Since we were going to be driving through the Yukon territory, we naturally wanted to visit their exhibit. That was the start of "the rest of our trip." Namely, we decided to join in the Great Yukon Treasure Hunt. Those who wanted to participate were give instructions. One was to visit at least five of the six visitors centers in the Yukon. When there, one would be given a piece of paper on which would be written a clue. All one had to do would be to figure out where the treasure was hidden.

ARRIVAL IN ALASKA

We arrived in Palmer about 9p.m. The house wouldn't have any food and we didn't have much with us. We decided make a brief stop at Carrs for a supply of groceries. We purchased bread, eggs, and milk.

We got to our parking lot about 10 p.m. Mark wanted to stop in at Noels. I protested that i

t was getting late. But he assured me they would still be up and would want to see us. I headed for the while he informed them of our present. Mark came back with an invitation to dinner which he had accepted.

We walked back to our house to get the pick-up. We needed to empty the car. It was a good feeling to be home. After we loaded the truck, we parked it outside Noel's house and went inside for dinner.

There we were presented with our wedding gift. Noel's family usually had yearly project. This year they were working on learning to make patchwork quilts. When they heard we were getting married, it was decided to present us with the first quilt they made. We immediately put it on our bed and have used it as a bedspread most of our married life.

We were so tired that we spread some covers on the bed and fell into the twin-sized bunk. The next morning we woke up feeling stiff. The bed was so small that we both had to turn over at the same time. However, we slept in the small bed for the first five five months of our marriate. But getting back to the story. Mark went to get water so I could wash my hair. I found a large pot which was thereafter used for heating water on top of the stove. I used a saucepan to dip the water from the large pan to pour over my head. Mark remarked that I accomplished washing my hair as if "I'd been doing it all my life" this way.

Our church was having two days of special activities. That was one reason why we wanted to reach Alaska by June 14. We headed to Anchorage fairly early. There we were greeted by friends. After the afternoon meeting, we decided to check into the Sheraton rather than driving back to Peters Creek. Mark felt since we had to be in town the next day, it would be beneficial to stay the night in town. I was pretty strung out from the long trip and then the effort of meeting strangers, looking pretty, and being pleasant. We had a relaxing evening, eating dinner at Josephines, the restaurant at the top of the Sheraton. Mark's steak was well-done instead of medium rare. He ate some of it before complaining. The second won was almost burned on the outside and raw on the inside. My meal was very good. We decided to pay for the meal. (Mark had eaten two plates of vegetables and other goodies.) Because Mark did not get his steaks cooked as ordered, the management gave us a coupon for free dessert for the entire party at a later date.

We kept busy most of the day Sunday. Mark asked me if I wanted to stay Sunday night in town as well. However, I felt and Mark agreed we'd get an earlier start on all our Monday work if we were already at the house. Some of Mark's friends invited us to dinner that evening. That was nice so we didn't have to spend money or else scrounge at home for something to eat. We went home and did a few minor things before falling into bed.

We had a busy two weeks before the end of June. I did some unpacking and organizing on Monday while Mark notified his friends and clients that he was back in town. From then on I became chief message taker for the business.

But before getting involved with the business, I had to put the house in some semblance of order. Monday was spent trying to get the kitchen cleaned up enough to work. Every dish in the house needed to be washed. Some because they had been sitting unused for over six months. Others were dirty because Mark's former roommate hadn't bothered to wash them before moving out. We heated water on top of the stove.

Noel gave us some buckets to use for hauling water from the creek. Cleaning was difficult when I could use only a small amount of water. Every morning Mark fetched me 2 five gallon buckets of water. I would use these up and wait for him to come home again to get me some more. I wasn't up to hauling water such long distances at this point.

The second afternoon of my life of Alaska (June 17th) was laundry day. We had all our dirty travel clothes in addition to all the dirthy things that were already in the house. Mark used to put all his loose change in a glass pitcher. We came up with $53.00 in quarters to put in the washing machines. Mark took me to the laundomat. Fortunately there was one about 3 miles from us. Mark helped me carry everything in and get the machines loaded. It was quite an undertaking to fill up eight washers. Fortunately, it was a fairly big laundromat so we didn't take up every washer. After helping me get organized, Mark went into town to find his friend Jim and to check the mail. I didn't mind his deserting me; I knew it was going to be a long, boring afternoon. I spent part of the time writing a letter to my parents. I also had a book with me.

I wrote my parents that "this housecleaning is going to take time. While Mark was making calls and things this mroning I started cleaning. I got the corner where the cat's food is kept looking better. Just started on the shelves above the waist hight refrigerators. Hope to move some of the things over there when I finally get to the counter and the `cupboards'."

After being hot in Oregon, I cooled off once we got to Alaska. I wrote "The weather has been pretty and warm the last couple of days. The natives have been restless. Today is cloudy and we just had a shower. so I feel on the cool side. I may have to get Mark to light the fire if it gets any cooler."

Later in the week Mark took me to get a bank account and my driver's license. We went to the credit union first. But I didn't have anything showing my current address. So we made a quick trip to the DMV. I missed three questions on the written test; fortunely that was acceptable. I lived with a real crummy picture for the next three years. My face turned out real yellow looking.

It was a relief to get the bank account opened for me. I had been carrying two paychecks and a large sum of cash. Grandmother Bolzern had given us $1000 dollars (in cash) as a wedding present. Plus there were other checks and cash that had been put in wedding cards.

Mark's high school class reunion was the 21st-22nd weekend. We decided to skip the dinner since we hadn't signed up for it. But we did go out to Palmer to the park where the picnic was to be. The invitation had said noon. Hardly anybody was there--even by 1 p.m. Mark didn't know the few that were there. I finally through a tantrum and told Mark I was leaving. I felt it dumb to specify a lunchtime picnic if no one was going to show up until later afternoon. We later heard things got rolling about 5 p.m.

I continued working on the cleaning and unpacking. I finally got all the suitcases emptied and my clothes hung up. We decided to make what had been Doug's bedroom into a closet/pantry for me. It was the size of a postage room and not suitable for a guest room anyway. At first we slept in Mark's office which had been his bedroom. But then we got the Northwest corner room cleaned out enough so we could move into it.

I ventured out to the Eagle River library on Wednesday, June 25th. Besides getting a library card, I wanted to inquire about the Alaska Library Association. I had belonged to the Texas Library Association before marriage. Although I didn't plan to actively work, I thought it might be fun to be around people who had the same interests I did.

We didn't have running water yet. Mark had always had a membership at a spa in Anchorage. That way, he could take showers. But that wasn't going to work for me since I didn't go into Anchorage very often and besides, Mark could take a guest to the spa only a couple of times each month. I ended up using the showers at the laundromat. If we were both there, they nicely only charged one fee if we used the same shower instead of dirtying up two stalls.

JULY 1986

Three weeks after our arrival, Mark dragged me to the annual 4th of July campout our church was having. It was both relaxing and frustrating. The lack of facilities made me appreciated the limited facilities we had at our house. At least I had an electric cookstove and a sink in the kitchen. Mark's friends who had attended the campout before and knew what to expect were very helpful

The campout was a trial to me. At this time, I was already going through a hard time with the adjustment period of marriage and moving to a different lifestyle. At the campout there were no showers. Mark and I did go swimming in the little pond with our soap. (I guess too many people did that... The next year a no swimming sign was posted.)

We camped along side Dee Dee and Tom Schmidt and two bachelors, John Pissanity and Dominic Bernardo. They were friendly and encouraging, showing me the way things were done. DeeDee loaned me their dishpan so I could wash my hair. Mark was sweet about hauling water whenever we needed it.

I was pretty uncomfortable. We were in a Mark's aging tent. I was feeling really crumped. Especially in bed under tons of covers. It was so cold (probably around 45 degrees at night) that it took lots of covers to keep this thin blooded Texas girl from getting cold at night. I remember complaining long and loudly about feeling cramped. (Probably everybody else heard me, too.) The next morning, I found Mark had rolled off the mattress onto the floor so I could have as much room as I wanted.

Somehow we survived the weekend and were still speaking to each other. It was a relief we we arrived home. As primitive as our house was, at least it had a kitchen sink and a stove on which to cook. Also, it was nice to have a semi-private outhouse.

At the campout, we mentioned that we were hoping to get a well drilled. Someone told us of a well drilling company who might give us a good deal if we mentioned his name. We did contact Gee and Son about drilling our well. They agreed to do it for $19.50 a foot.

Getting the well drilled was a major experience. We had expected to reach water by about 35 feet. At 60 feet there was no sign of water. We decided we had enough money to drill a little farther.

At 76 feet, still with no sign of water, the drillers stopped so we could discuss what to do next. We were pretty depresses as we really didn't have more money to spend. All of a sudden we heard a girgle, water started coming over the top of the well pipe. Hurray! We'd struck water after all!

It took us awhile before we had a chance to think about "piping" water into the house. On Friday, July 25th, I wrote my parents:

You asked about the well. It's just a pipe sticking up out of the ground. Since ours is artesian, the water flows out of the top. We've had it rigged with a hose surrounded by an innertube over the pipe so the water flows through the hose. We finally got going this little pump connected to Mark's old drill. So I can plug in the drill (extension cord coming upstairs) so it's going downstairs to power the pump to pump water through a hose to my sink. I'm still using my buckets to store water for several reasons I won't go into--but at least it's easier to get water now. We hauled the hot water heater upstairs (puff, puff) last night and filled it with water. But we haven't yet hooked up the electricity to see if it works. If the water heater works, then we can run a hose down to the bath tub so I can bathe.

Soon after the picnic, we decided to go down to visit and Father-Daughter team named Zorn who lived in Soldotna. We had seen them at the campout and had been invited. We decided we would go down to spend a weekend. That was a hectic Friday. Mark wanted to change the oil on my car. It hadn't been done since we arrived in Alaska. It didn't take Mark long to decide it was cheaper to have the oil changed by a "professional." Not because Mark couldn't do it but because the oil filter on the Buick is in a strange place that is difficult to get to. Better to let someone else have the hassle!

We had a lovely weekend at the Zorns'. Maudie insisted we sleep in her bedroom which had a double bed. She slept in the third bedroom that had only twin beds.

Maudie introduced me to rhubard "in the raw." I'd only had rhubarb once in my life before and hadn't seen it in its natural state. A pie was slated as dessert. I was quite intrigued and was thrilled when Maudie wrote out the recipe for me.

I misplaced the recipe when we moved from Alaska (don't worry, we'll get to that part of the story toward the end of this book.). However, this is the recipe in substance. Please forgive me if you find an identical recipe in a book. I'm not trying to take credit for somebody else's work.

VIRGINIA'S VERSION OF MAUDIE'S RHUBARD PIE RECIPE

Cut several sticks (probably around 7) from a large rhubarb

plant. Cut off the leaves; these are poisonous. After washing the sticks, you'll want to "skin" them. It's kind of like taking off the outer layers of onion. It makes the rest much more palatable.

Then chop the sticks into pieces, about 1/2 half inch thick. You can vary this according to preference. You want to end up with enough rhubarb pieces to fill up a pie plate. (By the way, you will need an unbaked pie crust, both top and bottom.)

Put the pieces in a bowl. Sir in a couple of tablespoons or so of flour for thickening. In another small bowl or a measuring cup, stir together 3 eggs and approximately a cup of sugar plus however much cinnamon you want. Then pour that over the rhubard and stir it all up until the rhubarb pieces are covered with the egg-sugar mixture.

Dump the rhubarb into the unbaked pie shell. Put in some little butter pieces. Put on the top crust and slit it so steam will come out.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven. It is advisable to put some aluminum foil around the edges of the pie so they won't burn; then take off the foil about 10 minutes before the pie is done. The pie takes approximately one hour to cook.

I was really enamoured with rhubarb. So much so that Maudie took me out to the "pasture" and dug up a plant for me to take home. I took it home and divided it into smaller plants to set out. I put them out on the knoll overlooking the creek. I've been told that it's difficult to kill off rhubarb. Maybe so, but mine never seemed to grow. Maybe ten years from now we'll go back and discover rhubarb all over the place.

July 27th Mark went to the store for wood, etc. and sptent $200 (including my grocery money). He bought a metal storage shed. Rod Henson came out the following Sunday to help him put it up. What had been advertised as a quick job turned into a 13 hour marathon.

About this same time I had my first dinner party. We decided to cook Chinese. Mark had bought me a wok at the Rural Discount Center in Peters Creek. It is near the laundromat. For the dinner, I had my first attempt at cooking rice. I didn't know how to estimate how much people would eat. We had lots left over. Noel had allowed us to raid his strawberry patch. I got the out Bird's Custard Powder. I made a custard, folded in the berries, and poured them in a cooked pie shell. I served the strawberry pie at dinner. However, I also made a raspberry pie.

The berries start ripening in July and can be found for more than a month. Raspberry bushes grow along the railroad tracks by the parking area. We also have currants and cranberries. Lowbush cranberries are regular cranberries like one buys in the store. Highbush cranberries are not really cranberries but can be used the same way. I called the extention services and asked them what to do with them. I was invited to come in and look over their recipe books. Mark came home one day with a book about berries. That gave me alot of ideas. I even tried making cranberry catsup with a recipte that Trisha gave me. It wasn't very much like ketchup.

Mark and I decided we would hit a few garage sale. One family near us was having a moving sale. We hoped to pick up a few more "house building" items. We didn't find anything except a pair of ice skates for me. I sincerely hoped that we would be able to go ice skating some time. Since the seller was willing to sell for only $4, Mark was willing for me to purchase me some skates if it would make me happy. I discovered the elementary school by the post office had a hockey rink. I also understood that Goose Lake was open for ice skating during the winter.

AUGUST 1986

I had been pretty hard up for appropriate footgrear. My flimsy sandal type shoes that were appropriate for East Texas weren't very suitable for walking on mud and gravel paths in Alaska. Unfortunately, the only pair of loafers I owned had ended up in a box that hadn't been shipped yet. Trisha gave me a couple of pairs they had at their house. They helped tide me over until the box from my parents arrived. Later, when we were installing a computer at a shoe store, Mark arranged to buy me a couple of pairs of shoes. One pair was "tennis" shoes and the other one was what I would call "clogs."

I found there were all sorts of uses for berries. The thing I liked most was to make frozen dacquairis (our version, that is) in the blender. After we finished off the vodka Mark had in the kitchen eves, we had virgin dacquairis. Later we bought Peppermint Schnapps for Ski Lifts, but never did purchase anything that might be suitable for a regular mixed drink.

Mark left at 1:30A.M. on Friday morning (approx. Aug. 6) for Denver. Champion paid for Mark's trip down. They had some work that needed to be done. They were ready to push through his project so it could be marketed.

I didn't get to go with Mark. As I wrote to my sister, "We're down to our last dollar so no waay I could come. We have several hurting clients who owe us. We hope they can pay up this week."

While Mark was gone, I had my first experience at driving in Anchorage after Mark got out at the airport. Sundown is around 10:30 but sunset starts about 9:30. When I first came, never saw colors as didn't get dark dark. Now is pitch black in the outhouse with door closed 1 a.m. Can't see Norther Lights in Summer. This was the first time I'd been out by myself at night. I had forgotten that it would be dark when I got back home. We left the house when it was light. I forgot that it would be dark and had to inch my way down the path to our house.

Since I'd never driven in Anchorage by myself, I'd been worried about driving in a strange city. Mark was really sweet about my nervousness. He drew a little map with elaborate instructions about how to get to the places we knew I'd be going. Anchorage is an easy city in which to drive; the streets are laid out pretty squarely.

One of the few things I had to do during Mark's absense was some data entry for a shoe store in which we had recently installed a computer. They had a number of addresses they wanted put in for a mailing list. It gave me an excuse to go into Anchorage and I had to get over to apprehension of driving in "the city."

I thought the weather was pretty strange in Alaska. I wrote my sister that "We've been having alternately sunny and rainy weather. Rain here means "sprinkles". A hard rain is what we Texans would call a summer shower. You see, weather is made up here so everybody else gets it instead of us. Rain is so llight that they don't use umbrellas or anything. Mark jsut puts on his hat. Both my umbrellas are dying. We plan to stock up when we come down next. There have been a few hot days in the 80s. I wish we had a thermometer. That hasn't yet gotten on my list. During the church campout, July 4th, it registered 96 degrees in the sun. But that was 280 mi. farther north

. Mostly the temp. is comfortable during daytime. Slightly chilly in morning and late night. It's been about 52-72 degrees during the day. But Peters Creek (we live on the creek but south of the "town"). Termination dust (light snow) has been sighted on the mountains.

While Mark was gone, I also experimented some with the berries. The cranberries were getting very ripe. I should have picked more than I did. I planned to put some in the freezer but never got that far. Mrs. Bruss gave me a recipe for cranbery catsup which Mark said his mother used to make. She must have taken all of her cookbooks with her because I didn't find any in the house. The raspberries were at their peak at this time. Unfortunately, I don't care for raspberries because because you can't chew them. Mark also likes blueberries. We never did go pick any although noel gave us a few that he had gotten somewhere.

Before Mark left, he bought an installed a lock on front (and only) door of the house. The hole in the door didn't quite match up with the knob. Later he put a plate on the door to make it all look right. But for the time being, I was just happy with the lock. It had driven me crazy not being able to lock myself in to feel safe.

Mark and I installed a shower. He had a metal shower. The walls were flimsy and rusting. We just took the base and then built a frame around it. We covered the frame with an aged green tarp. We put a curtain rod over the doorway hole and hung a piece of blue tarp in lieu of a shower curtain. We made a trade with the Brusses so we could have their washer and dryer in exchange for the refrigerator. With the Brusses help, we hauled the laundry appliances over to our house. We were worried that they might not work but they did. At least we found that out wonce we finally got more electricity hooked up so we could plug them in. We put them next to the shower so the washer hose can run into the shower drain. Hopefully one of these days we can get the floor and the real plumbing in. At least we have electricity.

.

In relating my experiences of being alone for the first time since marriage, I wrote my sister,"I got off late and forgot to take your letter with me so I may as well write some more. On top of being late, I slipped on the little hill between us and the Brtusses and had to go back in to change pantyhose. Fortunately my leg had only a minor scrape so it didn't take long to wash up. I made it to church about 5 min. before starting. Then afterwards I went out with Vanessa Summers who had her visiting 2 nieces & nephew with her as her parents were going to visit someone not set up for children. Vanessa was in Mark's graduating class at West High. It was so nice to talk to an adult girl... "

Mark and I began having dinner parties. I was ready to show the world that Mark hadn't married a total dunce. One Saturday evening we had invited a family to come over. The party mushroomed. At church we had run into, Ronnie Gunnoe, a former acquaintance of mine who had been fishing in Soldotna for the summer. So we asked him to join us plus another bachelor who could give him a ride to and from Anchorage. Then Brad Marson dropped in. He had been visiting Noel. So we invited him to join our cozy little group. Before the Butlers arrived, I suddenly realized that they had a small child who would probably need a high chair--which we didn't have. Mark had an inspiration which we used thereafter. The "secretarial" chairs in his office we equipted with hydrolic lifts to adjust the height. This came in handy; they would rise high enough that they were an acceptable alternative to a high chair.

About that time we also had a dinner party to which I invited Jim and Wil and their dates. For this evening, I planned spaghetti and soup.

I wrote to my parents on Thursday, August 14th "I got the tape yesterday--it sure was good to hear how things were going. I wasn't feeling too well (cramps) plus missing Mark. I think my body is going through some type of re-adjustment. I wish the rainy cycle would stop or come in spurts instead of off and on all the time. It's had to go out for exxercise. I get out for fresh air but it's not the same. It's jsut cool enough that I don't want to walk in the rain--not very fun at 50 degrees."

My parents asked me what the cat's name was. I replied, "According to Mark, he's going to call his cat "Cat" because that's a practical name. Although now he claims I call her "Boca Raton" since the day I called her that when she came into the house and threw up a shrew. Mostly I call her "kitty" or "Kitty Cat" when I talk to her. I figure at this late date it's not worth trying to call her Fluffy or Tao or something. Just so long as he doesn't call our children "Baby 1, Baby 2, etc. (Ha, ha)"

In late August I finally got our pictures from our honeymoon developed at K-Mark. Unfortunately, I didn't think about prices being different than I was used to in East Texas. I had been expecting $5-6.00 a roll. I was charged $28.76 for 4 rolls. I was so disgusted that I didn't even look at the pictures for several days. Poor Mark had to listen to be being disgruntle about the price of photo development. Then he told me we should check Price Savers and Costco the next time I needed to get something developmed.

Rhoda Reed and Glenn Woodworth were married on August 24th in Palmer. for some reason the wedding made me homesick. It was a very nice wedding. They even had dancing. Mark would have liked to have danced more (we were the only married people on the dance floor) but I wanted to watch the gift opening. We didn't get them a gift before the wedding so I wanted to see what they received so I hopefully wouldn't duplicate it. We later got around to purchasing a little ice cream maker that goes into the freezer. We really liked the one we had.

"We'll be leaving the house in a few minutes. We're going to compute at the Roemer's house tonight. I hope we remember to take Mark's suit to the cleaners. He carried me across a big puddle and slipped on the far side and sacrificed his pants than have me fall from hight up."

I made an observation in a letter to my mother "After years of masquerading as a college student, it's strange to find out old, married people are may age or younger."

To celebrate our 3 month anniversary, Mark took me to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. "We left about noon and I took a couple of sandwiches. The we had a Greek sandwich called a gyro there at the fair before coming home. I was slightly disappointed in the fair although I didn't tell Mark that. Maybe my childhood memory of the Washington County Fair does me a disservice. They only had one building devoted to all the animals. There were about 6 cows that looked bored. A number of hogs and some goats, then a few sheep. But the majority of the "animals" were various poultry and rabbits. The food building was interesting but they didn't let you get close enought to really inspect the items. I would like to enter something next year for fun if it isn't hard to do. Since we don't get a paper, I never hear about these things in time to take action. I hope one of these days we can afford a daily paper.

We wandered by the booths and signed up for the drawings. We told the Kirby man that we don't have any carpets (at least we don't have any worth keeping clean at the present) and he said at least we have electricty which several people who passed by his booth didn't even have. It would be nice if we won the trip to Hawaii. I'd even settle for the free piece of cookware at the Saladmaster booth. Mark asked about the price of the turkey roaster because he knows I want one (picturing $50)_ and nearly fell over when they told him $200.

He bought me a trapper hat at the Alaska Leather at not quite half price. He says he doesn't want me complaining about being cold. It is really neat and furry, not what you'd call feminine--just servicable. That had coats on sale for $99 that were sheepskin lined and beautiful. Too bad. But I could see what his must have looked like before he killed it. We took it to the cleaners. I hope they do a good job on it. In hearing the clerk's sales pitch, he said that kind of coat should be thrown in the washer. But Mark's is so stained. I think it best we did send it out to be done."

On the evening of August 28th we attended the organizational meeting for a book discussion club. "They" called it a dining and discussion club since the meetings were held at restaurants. The first meeting was at Clinkerdagger, Bicklestaff, and Pet's. This restaurant has since gone out of business.

SEPTEMBER 1986

WE had an exciting September. That is we kept busy and got a lot accomplished. in a letter to my parents dated September 8th (1986), I wrote, "The men were supposed to work on the road by the Ruesch's place yesterday. They (Noel's niece and Nephew-in-law) are building their house and have brought some equipment in. But it rained all morning. It's pretty swampy over there so they decided with extra rain water they'd really be sinking. So that gave us a chance to work over here some. A man new to the church area came to help. I don't care for the man, myself, but he is a hard worker. So they came back over here and sawed up some of the logs that are in a pile. We're getting a nice pile of wood for the winter although Mark says we need more. They brought down the wood that's been at the top of the hill for ages. And they brought over the refrigerator from Noel's and built a platform for that. I'd just figured we'd stick it by the Freezer. But Mark thinks we'll eventually tell the Brusses to move it down there since it's mostly theior stuff (I finally got a corner). Next spring we'll want to start on the floor so we can move the freezer out. What Mark's trying to do is put al the big stuff on one side so it won't have to be moved until one time instead of always moving pieces around. I'll draw a diagram so you will get an idea of how the house looks now on the next page.

"A couple of weeks ago with some wedding money to be frivolous since most of it went in the well, we bought a 1 1/2 c. ice cream maker. You put it in the greezer to freeze the container, add the chilled ingredients. The turn the dasher every so often. I've gound that when doig the freezing (churning) to put in he fefrigerator next to the small freezer section. It freezes so quickly you have to church more often. At least, our freezer gets that thing terribley cold. This "machine" works great and is just the right amount for 2 people. Yesterday I used half and half and an egg and sugar. The recipe calls for real cream. I made pistachio one day. Mark didn't think it was as good with the nuts totally ground up in the blender. I'll have to try leaving a few chunks for him next time."

I found out an exciting fact from a lady Mark knew. She told me that in order to kill off kale, the temperature has to get down to 12 degrees fahrenheit for a consistent time period. When I was a teenager, the kale in our garden didn't die over the winter. Since our finances were pretty bad at the time, we ate kale nearly every day. We even gave so much away tht our friends hated to see us coming.

My windshield had been cracked during our drive up the highway. It had never occurred to us that the windshield would be covered by insurance. Mark started to check into changing my insurance so all our cars would be covered by the same agency. We were told we should check with my current insurance company to have with window repaired before changing companies. We got an estimate for the repair work and sent the information to my agent.Yesterday the Costco phone info. said they were open on Sunday until 8:30 so we went. Evidentally they changed their hours but not the machine. Everybody welse was closed. So Mark decided we'd go to see Karate Kid II. The one blurb I'd seen didn't sound very good. But I guess they had to make it sound weird to draw audiences. I thought this one was better than the first, except the 2nd would be harder to understand if you didn't have the background of the first. I was glad we went except the price of the movies have gone up so much even Mark turned pale. Wee cerainly couldn't do that very often. What happens was the boy and the Japanese man who taught him karate flew to Okinawa because the man's father was dying. Mr. Miyagi had left there 45 years ago because this man wanted to kill him because the girl Sato liked fell in love with Mr. Miyagi. So after al these years, Sato is still out to get him. But during a storm, Mr. Miyagi saves Sato's life. So that works out after all. Then this young guy decides to have one more fight with Daniel who of course wins the fight in the last second of the show. I bet they will wait to see what the response is and then make a 3rd sequal to finish it all off.

The Deal's 25th wedding anniversary was on Sept. 14th. The younger daughters gave an anniversary party. I was flattered that Mark and I were among those who were invited. Mark was working on the road with Lennie and Mr. Bruss. As I wanted to go into town for the opening of the new library, I gladly said I would go.

The Grand Opening of the new ZJ Loussac Library took quite a bit of my time. "It's a huge building (I think there are some gov't offices in a wing.) Right now there is plenty expansion space. It was the event of the season on Sunday. The paper didn' guess how many people were there. It said hundreds, but I suspect thousands. You couldn't stir 'em with a stick. I talked to the acquisitions librarian for a while. She was nice. They imported a modern author named John Barth to be their guest of honor. I went to his lecture Tues. evening. It was inspiring. I can't say Mr. Barth's books sound very good. But it was interesting to hear his ideas. I went to the book discussion club that meets at the library. They seemed to be a more intellectual group. We shall see."

Sept. 15: "Mark is going to drop me by the library to see a DIALOG demonstration. The library opening is having a week of special activities. I plan to go tomorrow for most of the day but probably won't get in for the rest. Mark is working with Mr. Roemer tonight so that's why I'm going in today. I can go to the library while Mark is at his afternoon appointment. We have the AKLA meeting on Thurs. It will meet in Eagle River this time."

I had another opportunity to practice driving a stick shift. I promised to pick up the tire we took to be repaired. He picked up a nail in the green truck. Those particular tires cost $150 new so we wanted to get it repaired. The truck is knocking badly. Mark plans to drive it till it blows up (Hopefully not far from home) and then put in the engine that is sitting in the dead orange datsun.

Although the cat had begun to accept me during Mark's August trip, she still was Mark's cat. "I was so provoked--Last night I'd been tryng to get her to sit on my lap but she ignored me. I got up to get Mark a sandwich and when I came back she was stretched out on his lap. And he doesn't even think it's an honor for her to sit on him."

We received a letter from Mom Bolzern. The big news was that Ron had brought a girl home to meet her. It's nice Noelle was able to meet her before the wedding. Noelle was described at being short, blond with blue eyes. They had met in England soon after he had moved there. I don't believe at this time they had set a wedding date although we soon afterwards heard that it was scheduled for January 4, 1987.

I had an exciting September 29th, Mark rushed in one day, earlier than I expected. He asked if I wanted to go back in town with him to have something to eat. I grabbed my skirt and headed to the car with him. My brain wasn't operating. Suddenly it dawned on me that we were driving down the Seward Highway. That was the street on which Gwennie's is located. He had remembered the anniversary of our first date and was taking me for a repeat.

We missed having the same table by a second. They seated the couple ahead of us there. However, we did have the same meal. We were disappointed to find that the size of the sandwiches had decreased. However, the food was just as good. After eating, then we went to see one of Mark's clients.

My family had driven cars with automatic transmissions as long as I could remember. Therefore, my experience with driving them was limited. A friend had given me a couple of lessons several years before. However, I had never achieved comfort and proficiency. During the summer, Mark had given me a lesson in his old datsun pickup. The second lesson was rather improptu "...he started having stomach problems and we left his users group meeting early and he had me drive home (so you know he felt bad). That was horrendous driving across Anchorage aeing a novice. His car has a new clutch so is very unforgiving." Needless to say, after that experience we got busy giving me some practice. Within a couple of weeks I made a solo voyage to pick up a tire he'd left to be repaired.

The next "excitement we had was the phone line down to the Brusses quit working. It took us a couple of days to figure out what was wrong. We finally figured out the phone line had deteriorated since it was outdoors. I was housebound for a few days until Mark could get to a store for phone wire. Housebound becuas4e since the Brusses couldn't answer the business phone, either Mark or I had to stay home to answer it. I was antsy on Sept. 18th; AKLA was meeting that evening at the Eagle River Library. Mark did return as promised so I could go to the meeting.

OCTOBER 1986

I got prolific on my letter writing in October. Mark finally had time to introduce me to his favorite word processing program, Word Star. I had done a little work on it before but hadn't had much time to become proficient. Mark also introduced me to Champion Accounting so I could start helping him with some testing. I wrote, "I still don't understand the concepts. Guess I'll have to read an accounting book! Ugh!!! I'm glad I didn't marry an accountant. A computer nut is bad enough."

Oct. 1, 1986 "I lit a fire today. It isn't all that cold out (low 40s) but after several days of not haveing either a fire or sun, it is pretty chilly ;in the house. I'm really proud of myself because every time I have made a fire, it has taken right off and gotten hot. Mark says I just haven't had wet wood to cope with. We do put the wet wood on top but we have plenty of dry wood to use for kindling so the wet still starts well." I got promoted to fire starter so I could become confident; fires were somet hing foreign to me.

Cooler weather starts fairly early in Alaska. Mark started the fires at first. But he wasn't always going to be around to keep them going. I was scared to death of the wood stove. Daddy had always started fires in our fireplace and we didn't do that very often. Mark started off gently by teaching me how to put new logs in the stove. Once I got where I could do that without crying from fright, he patiently demonstrated and watched me numerous times to see that I could do it right. I didn't appreciate having to get out of a nice warm bed to start the fire when he could have done it so much more easily. However, over the next two years, I had to start the fire many times.

Alaska has the reputation for being a costly place to live. My first impressi on wasn't a good one. "It's terrible the price they charge for `day old' vegetables. They want 49 cents/lb. for bananas that are totally brouwn and are supposedly reduced." I had been finding out what it was like to shop with Mark. "We went to get milk and green peppers which would have been $4.39 and spent $16.98. Not that we didn't buy good and usable things like $3.10 for apples and he insisted on the largest stalk of celery which cost over $2. At least he supplemented my grocery money."

Before we moved from Alaska, I decided this impression wasn't totally correct. Like anywhere else, one has to know the prices. Alaska potatoes and lettuce were cheaper than I've seen in other states. Mostly, it's the heavy or fragile things like flour, sugar, soft drinks, milk, etc. that are expensive. These things are more costly to ship.

Octover 7. "We plan to go to one of my book clubs tonight (this one doesn't eat.) This month is a short story book by James Joyce. I wonder if this is a fair sample of his writings. Most of the stories are supposed to be him commentary on life as seen through whatever incidents are being related. Sor of grim and several just kind of leave the reader hanging feeling like you hope those poor people work things out somehow. I'll be interested to hear what the group has to say." I'd been to the meeting of the other group just previous to this. I thought the book was rather depressing. The ladies said they would relate to alot of the book whereas it left me cold. I guess I had the perspective of a young person who had been "independent" and was currently enjoying married life. The person in the book was suffering the empty next and freedom for the first time. So naturally I wouldn't have a middle-age perspective.

"We had a surprise invite to the Roemer's Saturday evening. She walked up before afternoon services and said something about seeing us tonight for dinner. We said `Huh?' Evidently Mr. Roemer had forgotten to ask us. Good thing she bumped into us and we didn't have plans other than visiting Betty (and taking Judy home for a relaxing evening) so we could go. I was surprised at the invitation because we go over often enough to do computer work and they feed us."

We had a scare that evening. While at the Roemer's, Mark wanted to make a long distance phone call and charge it to our GCI card. He discovered that he didn't have his wallet. That through us into a panic because we knew he'd had it earlier in the day. We later found it under the seat of the car.

About this same time, I "had the opportunity" to try my hand at logging. In other words, we couldn't afford to buy already cut wood. I wasn't too thrilled about having to help but Mark couldn't do the job by himself. He dressesd me up warmly in one of the old coats that were hanging in the "closet." There were several dead trees on the land around our house. We picked out a nice tall one and started to work. It was pretty hard work and slow going. After cutting down the tree (between ax and chain saw, he got it done), Mark started cutting it into lengths. These were to be about the same length as the wood stove. Later he would use the ax to split them into pieces. It was my job to carry the little logs to the truck. I wasn't a very satisfactory wood hauler because I wasn't very strong. I did get stronger, the longer I lived in Alaska. Thereafter (for the rest of the winter,) Mark and I would to take a day off about once a month to cut down a tree and haul the log pieces back to the house.

We had our annual church convention in mid-October. Just before we were to leave, I decided to wash one last load of wash. When I went to check on the clothes, I found the water had turned silty and everything was a dirty gray. I panicked. However, Mark said we would take everything into the cleaners on our way into town. That way the clothes would get washed and I wouldn't have to do the work. I was devastated when I later unpacked everything to find that I had accidently thown a wool suit into the wash. It still looked nice but had shrunk so badly I was never able to wear it again. It went smoothly.

Other than the laundry, our week at the convention went smoothly. Several friends of mine from the lower 48 were there. I was excited to see them. We invited everyone out to a dinner at Noel's so they could see what the real Alaska was like. We took them on a field trip to our house.

Mark and I were asked to participate in a "skit" during the entertainment at the barbecue. It was a wedding scene. I pulled out my white graduation dress to use as a pretend wedding dress and made a veil from the leftoever veiling from my veil which had been left with my parents after the wedding. The scene went fairly well although I wished we'd had time to practice beforehand.

Mark and I went to Copper Center on October 29th. The Copper River Native Association was one of his clients. He'd been putting them off until he had some time to go. It took an entire day to travel there, do work, and then get home. Copper Center was approximately 200 miles from Anchorage. I felt like a superfluous person at CRNA. Everybody was really nice to me but there wasn't a good place for me to sit that would be out of the way. I spent the day reading a book. We got finished about 4:30 p.m. and went over to the Copper Center Lodge wich was run by Mrs. George Ashby. Mark usually liked to eat dinner there. However, dinner was not to be served for another two hours so we decided not to stay. We got back to Peter's Creek about 8 p.m. and ate at the Pilot's Grill which is a cafe on the corner of the Birchwood exit. I had a hot beef sandwich while Mark had hot turkey .

NOVEMBER 1986

With the beginning of November, my thoughts turned to Thanksgiving. I was feeling loanly because Thanksgiving was a big deal in my family. Mark agreed for us to host a big dinner and invited some of our friends who were from the South.

We had quite a bit of work to do on the house before having so much company. On Nov. 10th I wrote, "We finally got the water line buried this past week. It was anticipated to be a one day job but turned inot four days."

Nov. 4. "Mark and a friend are ou t there now. They're still trying to get the road done enought to get the back hoe in. It wasn't gravel like we expected so it's taking alot longer. The largest cat we could get was a 450 which isn't big enought. The rental places have quit handling the big ones because they don't get used enought."

We didn't get the road done. Where it was supposed to go turned out to be all muck. Apparetnly it used to be a ravine and had been filled in. There was no gravel there at all. Mark says this area used to have miners and the military had people in this area. He told me these stores while were were cutting down trees to make room for the road. Guess who got to load all the wood he cut (into stove size pieces).

I was so exhausted! Mostly from time not heaviness. He loaded the biggest pieces and left me with the rest. I was really proud of myself when it was done. It became a challenge to get them all done. When the sun got low, Noel turned the path lights on so I could see.

Nov. 7. "Finally today are ready to do the last stuff and fill in the hole. I haven't had any water for two days. Will have to get some from the creek as my dishes are piling up. The house is a disaster and Thanksgiving is fast approaching."

In the middle of all that mess, I got dressed up and drove into Anchorage for my book discussion club only to find it was rescheduled for the following Wednesday. I hadn't really wanted to go but after wading through the Marble Fawn, I had no intention of playing hooky.

It was a relief when all the work on the well finally got done. While we had the "cat" in to the house, we had the depression over the cess pool filled in. It was nice to have no hill to stumble around when going to the outhouse. However, the ground still wasn't real smooth. I kept tripping over rocks, dirt mounds, etc. I finally went out and collected the big rocks and outlined a path from our house to the outhouse. It was kind of duncy but at least I felt better about it.

One advantage of having the well line beuried was that Mark no longer had to worry about the possibility of frozen pipes from the well. However, one day we did have a problem of a different sort. We woke up and discovered that although water was coming out of the well, the drain from the sink was clogged. At first we figured it was something like grease. However, Drano had no effect on the clog. Mark killed two "snakes" trying to get the drain open.

We finally decided it had to be ice. The sink always dripped. Apparently it was cold enough in the drain that the ice slowly built up until it choked the pipe. The question was how to thaw the pipe. Mark built a roaring fire in the wood stove and filled the reservoir at the back with water. He ran a hose from the water reservoir into the shower drainpipe. The boiling steam from the stove soon thawed the pipe.

At least the drains worked again but once again we had problem with silt in the water. It had messed up in October but then seemed to be clear when we got home from the convention. We started collecting water for the purposes of drinking in jars. After they would settle, then we would use them. We found that the silt problem worsened whenever the pump kicked in.

Once we got the well finished, we had to catch up on all the work Mark hadn't done the previous week. We made a quick trip to Homer, one of those non-paying trips so do a Champion update.

Jim Neeley had spent lots of time doing an analysis for MICA. The original understanding was that once the analysis was done, we would then be able to negotiate on what was to be done. However, it turned into a bid situation competing against other companies. Apparently, one of the partners had a friend to whom he wanted to give a job. This other company did indeed get the job. We were disgusted after all the work we did.

Another hassle we had was with a credit agency collector. Mark had decided to try one of those promotions one gets called about or letters promising gifts for a small order. Thaey didn't do what they said so he stopped payment onn the check. They said we still owed the bill (naturally) but no one at the company with any authority would talk to us to try to straighten out the problem. We didn't want to pay for the merchandize which we never received. The salesperson "was way on leave." So we were stuck with them threatening to kill Mark's credit (ha, Ha). Mark responded they he if they did, he would file a defamation of character suit because the company wouldn't talk to him and his check was good if the company would send the items he was paying for.

We splurged with some of the last of our wedding gift money. I had been wanting a touch lamp. Penney's wanted $160. However, we finally found one at Pay and Save for $59. At first I put it in the living room so we could play with it. It was only 60 watts so wasn't really light enough to work by. So we moved it into the bedroom which is where I wanted it; we could reach out while still in bed.

I had my first opportunity to try cooking moose. The Roemers gave us some. I didn't care for the ground meet. But the steaks were pretty good. I broiled one piece; it was okay. The next day I got out the meat tenderizer mallet and bashed it up and pan fried it. Mark really liked it that way.

Our dryer belt broke. Probably because the dryer hadn't been used in so long. I made do by hanging out my underwear. I found a use for the band music stand. I hung the hangers on it by the stove. Mark got a kick out of that but thought it was a resourceful idea.

"I must be homesick again. I've caught myself calling the cat Conrad. She's been a good girl lately. Lst week I wore jeans alot while we were putting the road in. So maybe she discovered I do have a lap like people who wear pants. Mrs. Bolzern wore pants so the cat was never around women wearing dresses. She doesn't like them because they slide when she climbs onto my lap. Tonight I'm wearing the corduroy hood dress. She seems to like it. She hates my slinky nighties."

The Drowns gave us a double bed. Up to this time we'd still been sleeping in the twin bunk. It was a relief to be able to turn over without both of us having to turn over.

We made our first trip to the dentist in November. I had one small cavity but Mark had several. We scheduled to go back in December. The teeth cleaning ($55 each) was all our budget could stand for that day. Mark said he thought that was pretty reasonable for Alaska. All the equipment we rented plus buying a pump had cleaned us out. And I still had a buy a turkey for Thanksgiving!

The snows of winter were late in coming this year. Ordinarily I would have appreciated that. But instead of having snow, we had cold temperatures and rain. The rain drizzled down and turned to ice. Nearly every time I set foot outside, I would slip and fall. I was a basket case in just a short time. Both knees were twisted and both wrists hurt. Mark spread some ashes from our house down the trail and Noel put some at his end. The worst spot on the path was near the Brusses house where the trees overhung the path. I not very nicely asked the Brusses to put some sand or ashes on the path. I later felt lousy that I wasn't nicer. After Trisha went to all the work to get the ice covered, then it finally snowed on the Monday prior to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving came up fast. It was our first attempt at major entertaining. We asked a number of people, deciding to stop at 17 people. We asked the Mark Mercers (4), Lisa and Carole Willard (2), Kathy Brown (1), the Ralph Nixes (4), Rod Henson (1), and us (2).

On Tuesday, Trisha called to ask if the invitation was still open. They had turned down our invitation because of a previous commitment. However, their plans had fallen through at the last minute. Of course, I was happy for them to join us. Trisha offered to help me make preparations and supply extra tables and chairs.

As it turned out, I really needed her help. It takes time to prepare for 22 guest, even with them supplying some of the food. Mark needed me to type a long document. While I was doing that, Trisha came over and cut up all the ingredients for my cornbread dressing. Then it was a simple matter for me to stir it together. With Trisha's help, we had things fairly well organized for the next day.

I had a brainstorm. The stained kitchen sink had been bugging me. I alwa ys kept it sanitized but even elbow grease didn't make it white. I decided to pour bleach on it like I'd always heard but didn't believe it would help much. I was converted--instant white!! I felt as if a load had been lifted off my shoulders every time I looked at the sink. That made my Thanksgiving much better because I'd been afraid the ladies would be offended by and/or afraid of my dirty looking sink.

We awoke to a beautiful 10 degree day. But it didn't feel cold because the sun was shining brightly. My intentions to jump up ready for a big day were forestalled by a terrible sinus attack. I felt horrible. It was a good thing we had everything organized. Mark helped me get the turkey ready for the oven. About mid-morning, Trisha and her daughters came over to set the tables. As I had not yet learned how to make gravy, Trisha did that for me. We were ready by the time the first guests arrived.

With Trisha's help to take dishes from the newcomers, I was able to stand there in my misery and talk instead of having to work hard. The women stayed in the kitchen to talk to us. The men alternated between the kitchen and downstairs where wood-splitting contests were going on. Since it was such a beautiful day, the children spent most of their time outside. There was sledding on the hill and ice skating on the creek.

Our meal was a success. We managed to get all 22 people inside. The adults sat at a large square table. The children had a smaller table on the staircase landing. We ate until we bulged. Rod Henson brought juice, the Mercer's brought sweet pototoes, the Willard's green beans, and the Nix's brought dessert. The Brusses brought additional turkey as well as providing extra chairs, utensils, etc. Several people left about 7 p.m. Mark and the hold-outs began playing cards. My headache made me feel too ill to join in. Mrs. Willard nicely sat out to talk to me. Then I got a call from my parents. The O'Dells were in Lubbock. I enjoyed getting to talk to the girls.

I spent most of Friday catching up of sleep. Fortunately there wasn't alot of work. We had bought special heavy-duty paper plates so I didn't have a lot of dishes to wash. Of course, our guests had helped us do most of the cleaning. Mark took me for a walk in the snow. I had been cryig that we'd had snow for almost a week and I hadn't had a chance to go out.

Mark treated me to dinner at Josephines on the Saturday evening after Thanksgiving. Mark had first proposed to me on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving so we thought it would be a kind of anniversary. Josephine's had messed up Mark's steak when we had been there in June. We decided to take the dessert coupon and treat ourselves. We'd been invited to lunch at the Marson's house so weren't hungry for a big dinner. We split a Caesar Salad. Mark let me have a cup of hot tea.

Noel gave us a window he and the "kids" had taken out of their house. They gave it to us. On Sunday, Nov. 30, we finally arranged for Mark's friend Graydon to come help Mark install it. Mark is a good assistant but he hasn't had professional carpentry experience. The weather seemed to be reasonable so we figured it would be warm enough to do the work. But we awakened snow. The fellows opted to continue with putting the window in as planned. They came for lunch (I served Chinese), then they put in the window. It was a major production without all the proper equipment. Because of the width of the window, they had to move the stove over. I had to rearrange the way I stored things because there wasn't as much room as before.

After finishing with the window, they also did some wiring so the hot water heater was no longer on the same breaker as the toaster oven or the pump. I'd been having trouble with overloading the circuits.

Graydon's wife Robin and I took their baby for a walk during the noisy part of the production. We walked down to the abandoned property across from Noel's house. I had never been there; it was fun to explore. Upon our return, we could see that the men still were not finished with the window. By this time we were getting pretty cold. So we went to visit the Brusses. They served us Sarsaparilla tea. I had never had it before.

When the hammering stopped, we decided it was time to go back home. The fellows were finishing up. After they put the kitchen back, I began preparing dinner. I had planned a chicken dish that would not take much work. It was a very pleasant evening to top the feeling of accomplishment.

DECEMBER 1986

Cherie Ruesch asked Trish, Bronica and me to lunch on Dec. 5th. I arrived a little late becuase I had to go to Wasilla. Unfortunately, I had to make two trips. Mark needed some information from Randy Whited. I didn't realize there was something to take me so I had to make a second trip. The roads weren't too bad until I got to Wasilla where less cars had traveled. Once I slid on some ice and turned around in the road. Fortunately the guy behind me was able to stop. After all that trauma, I really enjoyed relacing with Cherie and Trisha. Cherie made a nice chicken puffed pastry dish. I took an apple pie.

Brenda Bauer had a Beginning Acrylics class on Sunday, Dec. 14th. It was 10 to 3 p.m. which took the whole day when I had to leave the house by 8:30. I picked up Denise Schmidt on the way. It was so much nicer having a friend to go with. My mother likes to paint so I wrote her a detailed letter about the class. "Brenda was an interesting teacher. Because nobody spoke up, I said I'd rather we all do the same thing. (With two children and 2 teens we'd never get anything done doing individual work). Mark was pleased with my painting. She didn't insist that ours be carbon copies of hers. And mine didn't. One mistake she made was not to tell us to make the painting be tall instead of wide. We'd all drawn our mountain outlines on before discovering she was doing it the other way. I made distant misty mountains so my bottom part wasn't spacious enough to hve the proper foreground. I didn't get the water in the right place and my spruce trees look like they are dying. Definitely an amateur painting but everybody liked by mountains. I do think I'd like acrylics. As you've said, they are simpler because all you need is the paint and water; they dry so fast. I had some paints and brushes thrown in a box but I don't think I have them here. The colors she had us user were Thallo blue, Ultramarine, White, Black, Raw Sienna, a dark brown, a true red, and Hookers green."

I didn't get home until almost 5 p.m. One of the Clucas boys came over to help Mark cut firewood. John and Clyde Clucas had moved up from the peninsula to go to school during the winter. Their car was misbehaving so they took us up on our offer to give "Doug's car" to anyone who would drive it away. We'd been trying to give it away for months.

As said before, we turned in our Bid to MICA. We heard that the friend's company underbid us by $20,000. Mark doesn't think their system is the best for the job. But I guess it won't be our problem if it doesn't work--except we've lost one of our major clients.

On December 17th, Mark called that we can pick up the used copier we decided to buy. He'd been wanting one so we could mail out flyers advertizing computer parts. Several days later, I wrote "We got home with the copier but haven't tried it to see if it survived being bounced around. We had some experinece. Mark decided he would try driving the car over the railroad tracks because the snow and ice is heaped up so the rails aren't as high above the ground as during summer. The only bad part was from Noel's house to the Brusses. Mr. Markley had made a trail with the 3-wheeled ATV but the car is a little wider than that so Mark made multiple passes to get through. Sunday he'd been through the part from the Brusses to our house with the truck several times so the car did that okay."

"I checked some eary Alaska `history' books out. It was interesting seeing old photographs. I don't know how people managed back then. It's hard enough being a pioneer in the boonies now without modern conveniences like cars and grocery stores, electricity and telephones.

Mark brought home a VCR on Dec. 18th; he traded some labor for a Multi-Tech VCR? The big screen TV had conked out about Thanksgiving. We used my 12 inch black and white TV since there wasn't an alternative. We were able to attach the TV antenna to the VCR and the TV to the VCR. I was really excited to get the VCR. I started a tape so I could record shows while I was gone during or when I didn't want to have the TV on while Mark is home or something. The first think we taped was "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart. I really enjoyed it.

"They've installed the new 1987 officers for AKLA. Next year the local chapter will meet in the mornings at 8:30. I kind of like that idea (unless roads are icy) so I can get out and back before Mark leaves and I wouldn't have to be out after dark. The only disadvantages is that the Municipal libraries don't open until noon so I couldn't go when I'm in town that day. Next Tuesday afternoon there's a work party stuffing the conference registration envelopes."

"Mark got cat food yesterday. The cheapest he could get in the huge bag. Cat was getting hungry by the time he got home. I noticed this mroning she'd fished out and eaten the few remaining pieces of Meow Mix which is her favorite."

Ron's and Noelle's wedding was scheduled for January 4th. We really wanted to go. We looked for cheap tickets to England but $678.00 seemed to be the going rate. Nobody had any spcial packages or would admit to having standby rates. I did find my passport in my important papers envelope. I never did find my car title I was looking for. I had to order a duplicate from the state of Texas so I could register my car in Alaska and get my new license plates. "We talked to Ron on Monday telling him it looks like we won't be able to get tickets to go next week. But at least we found out about the others travel plans (sort of). Mrs. B and Grandma leave Germany Thurs. for England and will meet up with Chris when his plane gets to Gatwick on Friday about 1 p.m. Then they'll go on to Liverpool. We told them we'd be sending their gift. It'll cost a fortu ne to send first class. I think I was told a 3 lb. package costs about $11. Ron siad he'd like us to come and Noelle sure wants to meet us but he suggested waiting until summer when we'd be able to stay longer and hopefully have more money to enjoy the trip." I appreciated his thoughtfulness. Mark really hated to miss the wedding since it is one of the big events in a person's life.

Various friends had been nice about letting me do laundry at their houses. It was nice to be able to go visit with friends while doing something constructive.

The last weekend in December we went to a church social. It was a Russian food tasting party. Different people were designated to make certain dishes. I signed up for the spinach did. "Someone told me they had mine (name on bowl) and it was good. We have a small portion left so I'm anxious to taste it to see how it differs from the bowl at our table. Mark wasn't real crazy about any of the food. They were so worried about not having enought but there was ample, of course.

The first course was a cabbage/sauerkraut/meat soup. Souded terrible but was good. Then came the spinach dish and the meat pie. The only criticism I had on the entre was instead of cutting the meat in cubes, it would have been better pulled apart and cut up (tender roast falling apart). Every time I cut a bite, a big cube of meat would spirt out of the piece. I found out Mark doesn't care for pot pies so he didn't enjoy that even though it had a good flavor. He ended up wrapping his chunks of meat in the onion bread (like a tortilla). Then for dessert was something that was a sponge cake jelly roll filled with a prune chocolate filling with a strange fluffy sweet icing. Before the dessert was a slide show by the two teens who went to the Y.O.U. trip to Russia. Afterwards Mr. Summers led a "sing along" of Russian songs. I had an enjoyable evening, especially since it didn't go real late."

That same weekend (Sunday the 28th), after I picked up the Sunday paper at the Circle S, I went over to the elementary school hockey rink (outside). The snow wasn't cleared off so it was bumpy. But at least I got out and did a little. More exercise than not going at all. I enjoyed being out by myslef.

Champion finally called that they were mailing the check we'd been expecting. To celebrate, Mark took me on Dec. 31st for a Costco and PriceSavers shopping trip. I was really excited. We spent about $350.00 but then proceeded to eat on the staples we purchased for the next year and a half.

My parents worried about my driving around in the winter time. They didn't want me to freeze. They'd heard Ada's stories about how cold the Wyoming winter's were and how one had to take survival gear when going on even short trips. I responded "We keep the extra sleeping bags that zip together in my car all the time or move them if we go off on business. Mark says major emergency supplies aren't necessary unless you go farther than Palmer. We usually have the tow rope adn I carry a flashlight most of the time anyway becuase I don't like stumbling on the path after dark. Sometimes it is light enough. We got lots of relections with the moon and snow. Rarely is it so dark that you literally can't see, even without street lights which we don't have out here.

JANUARY 1987

My first project for January was to real Great Expectations for the book club on Jan. 6th. The Tuesday evening group had decided to read it. We wanted to find out what it was we should have gotten out of it when we were in school. "I like it alot better now than when I was 14. However, you keep expecting something more to happen than ever comes to pass."

"We talked to Chris briefly to ask about his plans for going to England for the wedding. He leaves on the 1st, getting to England on the 2nd and then retu rning from Germany on the 11th. Ron wrote us a letter and then they sent a wedding invitation. She looks blond and i would guess freckly. I feel so ancient when young people get married. And I hate beig bugged about having children. We're not interested in doing so in the near future--barring accidents. But it's bad enough weighing 10 lbs. too much, no wonder pregnant women feel like blimps.

Mark and I were in the habit of attending meetings of the Alaska Computer Society. The group had started out life as the IBM PC and Compatibles Users Group. Mark had founded it in 1981. Meetings are usually on teh third Thursday evening of the month. Even though many of the topics were above my head, I enjoyed the opportunity to attend with Mark. I was really thrilled when my ticket was drawn for the January doorprize. It was a box of diskettes. I was happy to get it instead of having to raid Mark's room for a diskette and never knowing if I was touching something I shouldn't.

I didn't mind it but Mark wasn't excited about watching color movies that were only two color. We survived for a few weeks until Mark couldn't stand it any longer. One day we decided we wanted to go to a movie. The other option was to get a video tape. After looking at the movie listings in the newspapers, Mark decided on a video. However, getting a video tape also involved buying a color TV on which to watch it. We went to the pawn shop in Eagle River and found a nice TV for $100. Mark's mother insisted on giving me the money to pay for it. I really appreciated that and enjoyed having a color television.

FEBRUARY 1987

The groundhog rarely sees its shadow in Alaska. At least it's one way of giving residents hope that Spring is on it's way. We had a warm spell in February. As the snow melted, we found that several places in the roof needed patching. Unfortunately, Mark didn't have time for that. As the snow melted, the drips next to and over the sink increased their pace. I wrote my mother "Good thing the Chinese water torture doen't bother me. Enough TV and things to make it bearable."

February is Fur Rondevous time in Alaska. It's a time for dog sled races and parties. People come in from all over Alaska to participate. One of the activities is the ice sculpturing contest. Mark and I stopped one evening after church before going to someone's house for dinner. I wished we had had my young nieces with us to see the ice sculptures. They apparently had differnt catagories like Fantasy, Wildlife, etc. Some of the animals were very realistic. I like the dinosaur. Somebody did a volkswagon bug on huge tractor wheels. We assumed the sculptures were judged but they didn't have ribbons on them."

MARCH 1987

March 8-11 AKLA conference in Valdez.

March 17, 1987 "...Mark's mother flew in eaarly this morning. She gets motel paid by the gov't while settling in. so she called to say she made it and said she needed today to recover from the 20 hr. flight. She wanted to get her hair done,

too. We're hoping she'll fell alive enough to come out for dinner. I'm organized for a chinese dish (my version)--rice is ready to cook and meat marinating.

"The mail contained a surprise. Mrs. Bolzern sent us a cookoo (sic) clock. I'd told her I always wanted one. We hung it over the staircase. It's ticking away. the bird comes out every 30 min. just like the regular chime clocks. On the hour after the bird gives the time, doors open and men playing musical instruments come out and a tune plays. I just love it."

"We had a lovely trip to Valdez even though it was short, only one night. We took food with us so we didn't have to buy anything but gas."

"I'm just dying for a change of scenery and wish we could go someplace away from all this snow...It's a shame that with all the $99 flights in the lower 48, it costs a fortune to fly from Seattle to Anchorage."

"It just flashed across the screen that susan Butcher won the Iditarod, 11 days 2 hrs 5 min 13 sec. Rick Swanson who's won 4 times is 2nd place. Susan won last year. The poor men in Alaska are really feeling low with having been beat out by a woman 3 yrs in a row. The 1985 woman winner had to drop out. Two of her main dogs got hurt early in the race."

APRIL 1987

April 10, 1987

"We received a blessing yesterday...We stuffed our winters' accumulation of garbage plus other misc. trash into the Datsun pickup and went to the dump. Our sled was stolen in January and the stores had already taken them off the shelves. So we've done without and had to carry things. What a pain! I found two plastic ones, although smaller, which are in better shape than the one we had."

April 23, 1987 "I'm still tired after having company all weekend. Not that they were a big problem or a lot of work, but it was mental stress to me. We had to move out of our room, etc. The kids behaved well for which I was grateful. But it was still nerve racking. We only ate a couple of real meals. I served omelets for breakfast with bacon and potatoes. And then for Sunday dinner we had Chinese."

"We went to a pawn shop this afternoon and bought a color television. Ours died in Dec. and we've been watching my black and white. This is a 13" screen. But we don't really need anything bigger unless showing movies to a group."

"Mr. Bruss is a little better. I don't know that he can walk yet."

"The snow is melted except for in the shade. I may try planting a few things Sunday. I don't know how waarm it has to get for seeds to germinate."

MAY 1987

JUNE 1987

JULY 1987

AUGUST 1987

SEPTEMBER 1987

Mark took a business trip in September. I had quite a time while Mark was gone. One day I got a notice from NBA that a couple of company checks had bounced. This threw me into an immediate panic. Mark had assured me that there was plenty of money in the bank; he left me with several signed checks in case I needed to make any payments.

Several months before I had begun working with the company books. At this point I had only

OCTOBER 1987

NOVEMBER 1987

Nov. 11, 1987 "We sold the white datsun to Mr. Kreiger. The young Kreigers came one Sunday to pick it up. Now we are left with only the van out in the parking lot taking up room besides our two driving cars. The three trucks stay in our yard most of the time. I'm glad we are down to 6 vehicles."

Mark was out of town during the early part of November. He asked me to do his Radio Show. "The head of automation at the library came on with me. We didn't knnow until yesterday afternoon that it was the last show. We thought we had one more week. Fern doesn't really care for the library computer system and lack of card catalog. The library seemed quite excited about having a show presented in a positive way so they can be there to defend themselves. Recently a discussion on the radio implied that the library didn't care to discuss the situation (they are talking about shutting a couple of the branches). My firend Thelma, head of public services, said that the Administration was never approached that the station wanted to do a program on it. The two guys they interviewed were city councilmen so only had one view of the issue."

KHAR, an Anchorage Radio station, has a contest every fall Contestants send in poems pertaining to the season and geese. The judges review each poem and a winner is chosen each day. I decided to enter.

One evening while Mark and I were at a User Group meeting, the pager went off. Trisha paged me to tell me she had heard on the radio that I was a winner; the radio station would be sending me a letter containing instructions for picking up the goose.

The following is my contest entry:

KHAR THANKSGIVING GOOSE CONTEST ENTRY

Thanksgiving is before us.

I'd like to prepare

But WHAT will I feed us

With the cupboards so bare?

In the freezer I have fish,

Or cheese toast may be had.

Even scrambled eggs in a dish

Would not be so bad.

It's a meal without guilt

When not a penny is owed

Than be charged to the hilt

Eating on the borrowed.

My relatives down South

Would lke us to see

But....

Don't be down in the mouth

At least,

Hungry we won't be.

We'll stay home and have fish,

Corned beef, or maybe moose.

But--Oh, how I wish--

For a KHAR goose!

I don't know if the judges thought my poetry was wonderful or if they felt sorry for me because I wasn't going to have a Thanksgiving turkey. At the time of the contest, I was trying to cheer myself up because even though we didn't have much money to spare, we didn't personally owe anyone besides the chiropractor and the college loan people.

The goose was wonderful. Mark went to pick it up. They asked him what size he wanted; "as big as you have" was the reply. It was 11 1/2 lbs. This was the first time I had cooked a goose.

Hint: A goose cooks pretty fast, especially in a covered turkey roaster. Be sure to spoon off the fast approx. every 20 minutes or else the goose will fry. Goose is very fat. Also, don't use the drippings off the goose for the gravy. Goose drippings are very strong. The gravy will be too highly flavored of goose. Mark didn't think the flavor of cranberry sauce went as well with the goose as it does with turkey.

Mark and I decided not to have a big Thanksgiving this year. Besides having a tight budget, Mark didn't think I needed the effort. Mom came out from Anchorage to be with us. Later I wished I had invited my friend Anna and her daughter who had stayed home when their plans had fallen through. But I didn't know that until the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

In addition to the goose, I had one special project for the day. Mark sometimes reminisced about his childhood. His family owned chocolate candy molds shaped like turkeys. In doing some cleaning a few months before, I had discovered the molds in a box. Unbeknownst to Mark, I had arranged to buy a block of chocolate from a bakery through our neighbor Lennie Ruesch.

The candy making was fun but not a huge success. We had problems getting the chocolate out of the molds without breaking. However, we did end up with several intact turkeys. Some we ate and others we gave away.

DECEMBER 1987

My college graduating class has a reunion at the end of December. They decided this was the best time because many have time off work during the holiday season. Mark and I had originally planned on going. I even sent in the $40 registration fee. All that was done early in the fall.

By the time came to actually plan the trip, it became apparent that Mark would not be able to go. December/January would be the time when the Alaska Court System project would be coming due. He could not afford to be gone.

Mark generously said that I could go. But who wants to go alone? Half the fun of going to these things is to show off one's husband and children. I really doubted if Cat would like to go along to be shown off.

And the other consideration was that Mark wanted to go to InfoCom, the big computer trade show. It was to be in Dallas in February. If I waited to go on that trip with him, then it would be possible to include seeing my parents.

JANUARY 1988

FEBRUARY 1988

After Mark had gone on a trip in November 1987, I had announced that I was going on the next trip. After all, I had not been out of Alaska since my June 1986 arrival. It seemed like some crisis would occur every time Mark left. I opted not to go to my college class reunion by myself. I was glad as bigger and better things awaited me.

At last my time had come! Mark and I boarded the plane to Dallas the evening of Saturday, Feb. 6. As we walked out of the plane at the D-FW airport, Mark said "Virginia, we're home!" For a moment I didn't understand. It was approximately 30 degrees and snowing.

We never thought we'd arrive in the middle of a snowstorm. Mark afterwards said he'd never felt as cold in his life as the 5 days we spent in the Dallas area. The humidity made if feel colder than the same temperature would have felt in dry Alaska.

MARCH 1988

The AKLA conference was in Fairbanks that year. Mark combined my trip with GCS business. A friend wanted to buy a computer and various software packages. Mark worked with him while I was at meetings.

I really liked Fairbanks. My impression of it was a feeling of home. It was a flat town with a few trees, reminding me of West Texas.

APRIL 1988

April 29, 1988 I was thrilled when I went to the Chiropractor on Tuesday to find out that my whole back was in for the first time. WE have an appt on the 6th for patient appreciation day (free of charge) so he said we'll see how I'm doing then to see if we can go to once a month visits."

MAY 1988

JUNE 1988

Mark left for Denver on June 5th. I hated for him to leave. He wanted to leave early that Sunday morning. My usual Sunday morning rountine was to go to the Circle S convenience store to buy a newspaper. Sometimes I walked, other times I drove. We decided that I would drive out with Mark. He took me to the store. There we said goodbye; he left and I walked home. The walk gave me some fresh air and something to think about besides how quiet the house was.

JULY 1988

4th of July 1988 was a different one. No Mark and no church campout. My brother-in-law Chris was doing commercial fishing with the Clucas family on the Kenai Peninsula. We hadn't seen him since the beginning of the summer when he arrived from California where he was going to college. Mom proposed that we go down to visit.

It was so much fun. Everybody was so relaxed. We didn't get to see much of the fishing. Regulations permitted fishing only at certain hours; we didn't get up in time. However, we did see the fish. I took a picture of Chris holding up a King Salmon. They are pretty good--but so delicious.

I'm not a big fish eater. But tuna salad doesn't hold a candle to the taste of salmon salad. The following is the recipe which I developed.

SALMON SALAD

cooked salmon

lemon juice

sweet pickle relish

celery

mayonnaise, miracle whip, or salad dressing

onion or onion powder (optional)

In a bowl, separate the salmon into little pieces, being sure to take out any bones. Pour a dab of lemon juice on the salmon. Using a clean fork, add a couple of forkfulls of relish. Chop up celery into tiny pieces--judge how much celery you like. Onion lovers will appreciate the extra pizazz of onion--again use your judgment. Stir in salad dressing until you have it as "wet" as you want.

Salmon salad can be used the same way one uses tuna salad. It goes over really well as sandwiches.

The 4th was on Monday. The Clucas family had a get-together at a lake. When Mark was young, his family and the Clucases used to visit each other often. Mark knew most of the Clucas relatives. They were happy to meet me and treated me as one of the family.

Many of the young people went water skiing. Without Mark there for moral support, I didn't have the courage to try it. I'd only tried water skiiing once before--about 20 years ago. I didn't feel like trying my skill unless Mark was there to rescue me. Obviously, I'm not very athletic. I did enjoy riding in the boat while the more adventurous did the water skiiing. My brother-in-law tried the sailboard.

Most of all, I enjoyed the nap I took in the back of the Clucas's van. It was nice to go to sleep without worrying about missing phone calls or being unproductive. And the van was nice and warm, heated by the sun.

AUGUST 1988

We started looking for a way for Mark to come home. He wanted to leave his car in Denver. As we were moving, that would be one less item to worry about if he didn't drive it home. I decided to call MLT vacations. They arranged charter flights from Alaska to various locations. It was my lucky day! Sept. 2nd was the last day and they had just put on a special to get rid of the last of the tickets. I was able to buy a ticket for half price.

SEPTEMBER 1988

Mark returned Sept. 2nd. I sure was happy to see him. This was the first time I'd seen him since June 5th, almost three months before.

first oil change on my car.

cutting down tree for the first time

getting the hot water heater up the staircase

installing the shower, digging hole for pipe

buying oil furnace

trying to grow garden

picking cranberries

current pie

taking over the company books

burying the water pipe, putting the logs in the truck.

first oil change on my car.

cutting down tree for the first time

getting the hot water heater up the staircase

installing the shower, digging hole for pipe

buying oil furnace

trying to grow garden

picking cranberries

current pie

taking over the company books

burying the water pipe, putting the logs in the truck.