Chapter 15

(Day 28, evening at the Chena River Lodge)

The fourteenth employee had just finished the pre-employment Polygraph test, and was the fifth to pass, not tripped up by the question, "Have you ever stolen from your employer?" She was told to go on back to the Chena River Lodge where she would be re-hired. Five had been tripped up on "Have you ever stolen property from a guest?" Another two failed the one about having committed a crime of a sexual nature or murder. It was really weeding the people out that had worked at the Inn, and caused a one-star rating in the latest "Milepost".

Several refused to take it at all, and threatened to sue Tracy over their firing. The Security Guards and Robert Walker were simply not given the opportunity to reapply. Out of forty-one employees on the 15^th, by the 17^th of September, only ten would be rehired.

Tara called her nephew at the casino in Reno, and offered him the job at the Chena River Lodge. Chuck Arnold was under contract through May, but wanted to be considered for the Walker Lake Lodge.

Tracy looked at Sheila, and admitted, "Next to Mama, you are the best cook in the family. We need you here to do or teach or both."

One of the waitresses that they rehired came up to Sheila and volunteered, "I know we are short a cook, and I would like to try out for the job. I do pretty well, and I won't let you regret it. I mean you need good food in a place like this. You can't just serve them pizza and get away..."

"Pizza!" Sheila exclaimed. "Grif, I need you to find me Gina Owens' number. Tracy can vouch for it. We will buy the grandfather's recipe for his pizza!"

(Day 30)

Former waitress Francine Hall was assigned to the kitchen and Sheila. Carol was pressed into learning to wait tables with Chris Walker for the time being. Rudy flew Tara and Grif down to the Aurora View hangar at Merrill Field so that Tara could bring her Maule to the Chena Hot Springs airstrip. Grif would then fly in the Cessna Turbo Stationair to the Aurora View Wilderness Lodge to pick up the recipe and enough frozen dough to bake twelve of the big 24 cut pan pizzas.

In addition, two of the young single native men and three women who worked seasonally during the summer rode back with Grif to help out for as long as they wanted, or until Tara could replace them. The choice was theirs, although with the chance to work near Fairbanks it was easy to get people that wanted to work from the coast. That is if they had a way to get there.

Another nice surprise was when Nina Owens came over with Jeff the following day to bring Gina's CD, "The Favorite Recipes of the Aurora View Lodges", and one of her friends from Shaktoolik that worked at the fishing lodge kitchen during the summer. With less building in the fall and winter, not all of the summer lodge workers got on with the AVWCC. Nina was there to ask for their room and board as part of their pay.

(Day 36 September 24, Chena River Lodge)

At 6:30 in the morning, the Chena River Lodge opened with a breakfast buffet. The morning was clear and cold after three days of snow. Tracy and Sam made a phenomenal team with the re-establishment of the site as a high-quality eating establishment. Sam and Chris had things well under control, and Marty and Rachel had gone to finish packing their things in Clovis, and sent them on.

Tracy had homesteaded one of the suites for she and Carol, and thanks to Nina Owens, and Gina Owens help, she was brought up to speed with her home school curriculum. With the staff from the lodges in place to prepare gourmet quality meals, Sheila wanted to get back to her family and her writing. She had several calls from Frank Hendley, and they needed to start promoting the new lodges for the coming summer.

The main lodge at Walker Lake was almost completely enclosed, or in the dry, as it is called, and the ten guest cabins were. The 3000-foot runway was finished, but needed a plow to keep it clear, so a Snow Cat mounted plow was carried out aboard the L-100, with two snowmobiles, and a load of plumbing fixtures. With the exterior finished, Sheila had some professional photography done of the buildings and the Aurora Borealis to get the brochures done to her satisfaction.

Tracy also had a need to get back. She decided to sell the house in Philadelphia, and wanted to be certain everything was done right to get the maximum value from it. Kathy was living on the campus of the Police Academy and was still a long way from graduation. She told her mother that she would be fine, as Nick looked after her quite well.

Nick was a lot of help to Kathy too. For a former hoodlum, he learned the training curriculum quickly and even helped her with her studies. She felt confident that with Nick and she being the top two in the self-defense and martial arts classes, that Ricky was not going to ever bully her again.

On the morning of September 27, Rudy, and a new pilot, Tim Robins, flew Sheila and Tracy back to Philadelphia, and New York, aboard the Super King Air. The Beech was more economical at the time for just two passengers, and they would hopefully be bringing back Sheila's kids.

Carol stayed with "Aunt Tara and Uncle Grif" being the first of the un-adopted children. The trip outside was to be two to three weeks and Grif and Tara were mindful of how many days they had already been out of state.

Rudy and Tim would use the time to go to Wichita for their Safety Certification in the Cessna 208 Caravan, and Beech Super King Air 350. Their training in the jet would need to wait, and for the time, only Grif was experienced as command pilot in the jet, with Tara doing her best to re-certify for her jet rating. She was just days away from her exam, and Grif let her train under Janet Snow with Aurora View Air for that time.

Janet was one of the best lady bush pilots in Alaska if not the very best. The ones Janet trained, she was hard on, but had never lost a student in a crash in nine years of being a Certified Flight Instructor, or CFI. Students that might pass in the University administered flight training, would not pass under Janet Snow until they were absolutely ready.

That is why Tracy agreed to send her there. Janet's husband Jake was an excellent instructor too, but with the profession still not fully accepting of women pilots, Janet when she truly liked the student, as she did Tara and her earlier protégé, CC De Marco, made her students the best there were!

Grif was busy going back and forth and overseeing the Walker Lake Lodge construction. Meanwhile Carol was working at the Chena River Lodge, and at night, she and another of the employees would catch up on or get ahead of her schoolwork. Now sixteen, Carol was turning into a pretty responsible young lady. Every other night, Tara would return to the Walker Lake Lodge, to spend it with Grif.

By October 1, it was obvious that Sam was the right man for that job. He was also the right man to train a couple to manage the facility for when the time came to move on to Walker Lake in the spring.

(Day 45, October 3 — Fairbanks Jail)

The reopening and new success of the Chena River Lodge was not lost on Ricky Ray, serving a 120-day sentence for assault and battery and contempt. With good behavior, he would be released after sixty days, and Ricky had been the model prisoner. While Ricky awaited his release, he plotted his revenge on his aunt and sisters. This involved hooking up with another bad egg named Eugene Lesser.

Lesser had bragged to Ricky that he had killed two people in a robbery in Detroit before fleeing to Alaska. His present conviction was that of promoting prostitution. Ricky and Eugene had visions of turning the lodge into a high dollar brothel, once his accusers had the terrible accident that would take their lives. Then Ricky would inherit everything and restart another Animal Rights organization.

Ricky couldn't control Eugene, although he was too fixated to see that. The accomplice planned to do away with Ricky too eventually. Eugene Lesser despised Ricky Ray because of the way he was, but then again, his money was just as good to steal as the next guy's, if not better.

The question was do they sabotage one of the planes, and make a spectacular crash? Or stage an auto accident, which was a common occurrence on the winter roads. This one would have a lot of help. If any "accidents" needed to happen in New York or Philly, Ricky's contacts inside the Mud Devils would handle that.

(Philadelphia, PA 1:30 p.m.)

Tracy had just met the new pitching sensation, brought up from the Phillies' farm system at the season's end. The young man had just bought Tracy's big house for his parents, so that they could see his home games. Now, the papers were signed and the funds transferred. All that remained was the shipping of Tracy's personal household items and her Cadillac Escalade to Fairbanks. Much of the furniture had been sold with the house, and Tracy knew that she could replace it in Anchorage, if Fairbanks didn't have it.

Rudy and Tim were due back the following evening from their training, and Tracy would be rejoining Carol in Alaska. First she would be going to her parents' where Sheila and she could finalize the brochures and ads. Frank flew to Philadelphia to bring Tracy to White Plains and show the brochure detailing the two sites.

By adapting the gourmet buffet from the Aurora View, Chena River Lodge was becoming a popular eatery for the people of Fairbanks. While not cheap, it was causing dozens of regular customers to up-size their clothing in the weeks following the reopening. Breakfast and dinner were the most popular, and especially on Friday and Saturday evenings, the reservations for guests not staying in the lodge were backing up.