Chapter 25

(May 1, Aurora View Fellowship Church)

The Texas guests stayed for the wedding, and it went off perfectly. Dom had the honor of giving the bride away. Mike and Mary flew in from Nome for the day, and that was where Chris and Donna went for their honeymoon. Mary caught the bouquet from Donna, and decided they had best set a date and "stop living in sin" as Carol teased her.

At the wedding, Dom was talking to Andy and Gus from the AVWCC who decided that they could use his expertise in roads and bridges, as the road into the hills was to extend across to the old AVWL, and then further to the upper Ungalik River. Dom agreed to be a technical advisor for the construction, but he was otherwise retired. He had thoughts of putting in a vegetable garden to see how things would grow. Gary didn't know if he was too close to the coast or not for the soil to be good, but he was welcome to put one in at his place if he needed to. His father in law had grown some exceptional gardens there.

From the wedding, Danielle invited Tommy and Carol along with she and Paula Clark to go check the status of her private hatchery projects. The Silver Salmon fry would need to be released into the streams, to live their life cycle. At Trout Lake they released both Silver and Sockeye Salmon into the lake. Danielle then washed out the gravel for the next spawning.

The next stop was the upper Shaktoolik, where some Silvers and Chums were released. From there, the site on Icebox Creek was done, and that was all the time they had. Paula would do the one on the little tributary their house was built on the next day after school. Tommy offered to help, but Sue usually helped on that one. There were still patches of ice in the water in the shady areas. By weeks end it would all be gone, along with the runoff.

Tommy couldn't wait to try the fishing that he heard about all winter. His grandfather was just as eager, and offered to learn to guide for Grif. Grif really liked Dom and when he left for Anchorage that evening they would let Tommy and UD (Underdog) stay there. Danielle had this crazy idea about introducing Grandma Del Monaco to Papa Carlucci. Donna had thought it would be fun too. The joke was on them, however, because Papa Carlucci's aunt they learned had married Dom's father's Uncle Louie from Rome, Italy and then New York.

Papa Carlucci was Grandpa Del Monaco's second cousin, and he and Maria had met twice at weddings for mutual family members many years before, while they were much younger. The elderly pair seemed to come to life after they established the recognition, and laughed about, "fifty years later we meet at another wedding way up in Alaska. Now what are the chances of that?"

Danielle realized she had made her great grandpa very happy. He even asked Jesse to bring him down for the day on Monday. Danielle and Jesse thought it was cute, but the joke would be on them.

(May 2, Anchorage, Alaska)

Doc Frazier predicted that little Joshua was not going to wait until the 15^th and would probably make his debut in the next eight or nine days if not sooner. Thus there was no more back and forth to the lodge until after. Bonnie was there to help Tara with anything she needed, and Grif had secured permission for her to be present when Joshua was born.

Grif did the shopping, and they stayed in the big house in Anchorage that technically belonged to Dom and Beverly, but as Theresa said, he was now family.

Everything at the lodge was going great, and the boats were outfitted with new motors and tanks. There were new life jackets all around. Grif was told he was missing out on the smelt run, but Dom and Tommy went with Link and Wally to make sure there would be plenty.

On May 7, Joshua Christopher Griffin came into the world weighing 7 lbs., 14 oz., and 21 inches tall. Tara was in labor almost 14 hours, and Grif witnessed the birth. Bonnie opted to not witness much of the process, but couldn't help being the second one to hold him, and the one to pass him to Tara.

Two days later, they lifted Tara aboard the Honda Jet and returned to the Arctic Fox. They had brought six cases of formula in case Tara didn't produce enough milk, which at 39, she didn't and by the 15^th, they had to fall back on formula. This was okay by Donna, Bonnie, and Beverly, who were always willing to feed him. Tara felt bad that she couldn't, but they were thankful that Joshua turned out okay.

The 16^th was when the non-fishing guests began to arrive. They came to visit a Native village at work, and see the marine and terrestrial wildlife. Rudy was flying a group out every day to the islands offshore to see the seals, walrus, and occasional whale. Those people were just average people, and not activists. The sight seeing flights (called flight seeing) were also used to seek out possible new flyout locations.

Gina Owens' cousins ran Trout Lake Lodge, and CC De Marco was also a lady bush pilot of note. CC dropped in on the 27^th to inform Grif and Rudy of Wrench Lake a few miles to the east of Trout Lake as a possible flyout destination. Wrench, like Walker Lake held Lake Trout, Pike, Arctic Grayling, and Whitefish. The pike were fortunately not plentiful and had not gone into Trout Lake because of a falls on Moose River that they couldn't get over.

There were two cabins on Wrench Lake, and an attempt was made to learn who built them, but to no avail. On June 1, after Rudy finally mounted the EDO's back on the Cessna 185, Donna assured Tara that Joshua would be fine with her, and that she and Grif should go check out the fishing at that new lake. Rudy had been there the day before with Chris, and caught one small pike while fishing from the floats. The week before, the L-100 brought the boats in that were originally ordered for Walker Lake, and Grif and Wally lashed one each to the float struts of the Caravan Amphibian. He and Tara invited Wally, Dom, and Link along for the exploration.

When two hours of fishing produced only six pike, and none bigger than thirty inches, and no grayling, Grif concluded that was not a viable flyout option. There were bigger pike on the Kobuk, just a few miles north of there, and they at least had Sheefish and an occasional salmon. The boats were again tied to the floats, and the expedition returned to the Arctic Fox. It felt good for Tara to be out flying again.

They instead opted to fish the Kobuk for the Pike and Sheefish option, and a day trip to Walker Lake for Lake Trout. It was farther, but they had the rights to fly there, so they could make use of the site. Without the flyout options, the Ungalik was a long river, and even with the Wilderness Camp where the bears were killed, had plenty of yet unexplored waters to fish.

The Arctic Fox guests were to arrive by a chartered AVAS Beech 1900 airliner in Shaktoolik, and then would be driven to the Arctic Fox Lodge by a small bus. Grif adapted the previously used schedule and rules for he and Tara's guests. A direct flight by the Beech King Air 350 was reserved for an optional charter by groups of six or eight.