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Alaska Rainbow Lodge Stories
ARL Stories Archives
It has come to my attention that many of my customers over the years have enjoyed my storytelling. Some say the stories I
tell at the dinner table set us apart from the standard everyday fishing lodge.
Many people tell me I should write a book. In fact, I have gotten so many requests to write down my stories I have decided to
start a monthly story. That is, each month I'm going to write down one of my stories. I will be emailing and regularly mailing them
out to all of our present and past guests. Feel free to forward them on to anyone you choose, or send us the name and email and
regular address. We'll forward them a copy.
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
It was August of 1971. I was forty-one years old. I'd had just returned to Anchorage from the Wrangell Mountains where I had been guiding for the Dall Sheep. It was between hunts and I had a few days off. I'd dropped into the fur traders taxidermy shop, which I was a 50/50 partner with Dick Idol. I kept my hunting business office in the same office as the taxidermy shop.
Dick and I were discussing all the latest events, which included a buying and selling trip to Norway and Sweden by way of several states and cities to promote my hunting business. I had planned to spend about eighty days, thirty in the states promoting hunting, then travel on to Holland, Norway and Sweden to mostly buy furs for our taxidermy business. After that, I planned an African Safari in Kenya and a Tiger and Leopard hunt in India, returning home through the Orient via Bangkok, Hong Kong and Tokyo. While Dick and I were talking I spotted this beautiful girl working at one of the fur tables. I asked Dick, "Who's that beauty and what was she doing here"? Dick said "She just blew in here from Hawaii and asked for a job. I put her to work making fur flowers out of all the leftover fur scraps we have". She's pretty creative and she can make about twenty to twenty-five a day. They sell for $5.00 each and the material is scrap and her salary is $2.00 a flower. We're selling all she can make". I said man, she's a beauty. I'd sure like to meet her. Dick introduced me. Her name was Kandice Green, recently from Hawaii, grew up in Portland, Oregon. She was of the free wandering crowd, roaming the country, looking for adventure. One thing for sure - she was a raving beauty. Unfortunately, I had to leave the next day and return to my hunting lodge in the Wrangell Mountains. I never saw Kandice again for over a month, when I next returned to Anchorage. I asked her out for dinner and night clubbing. She turned me down. I suspected she was an anti-hunting type of girl although I didn't ask point blank. I often wondered why she applied to work in a taxidermy shop where animals are mounted on forms for hunters.
It wasn't until October I saw Kandice again. I asked Dick where she went since she was no longer making flowers for us. He said she went to work in the donut shop. So naturally I stopped by the donut shop to get donuts for the crew at the taxidermy shop. Kandice was there, as beautiful as ever. I tried to make small talk but I wasn't getting anywhere. Of course, the ultimate goal was to convince her she might have a good time if we went out. No such luck. She wasn't having any of that. I just took my sack of donuts and left, but before I did I said, "How would you like to go around the world with me?". She answered, "What's the matter with you - are you crazy?" I said, "no, I'm going to Africa and India in December and I'd really like you to come along". She looked at me like I was crazy and turned and walked away.
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