Just Bear-ly…
The day got off to a rather slow start, but things sure picked-up later on… Arden had to do a bunch of work, as usual… There is so much more to running an operation like this that us lay-people wouldn’t know about unless we gave it some serious thought… A restaurant, motel, lounge, gift shop and general store (with gasoline sales, too), plus cabins and a fishing lodge (where I’ve actually been staying) …
Staffing and managing people, schedules, widely varying temperaments, quirks, ages and genders… and, in the case here, nationalities. She actually has several ‘exchange students’ from Kazakhstan working here to earn money for college back there. It’s done through a federally sponsored ‘cultural exchange program’, but… lots of unique challenges with that, I can only imagine.
The usual challenges are also present, compounded by the remoteness of this community… Stocking supplies is a main source of constant attention focus, so deliveries are on-going, but weekly trips into Anchorage are still necessary.
Bills have to be paid, payrolls met, sessions held with the accountant going over the books and making sure Uncle Sam gets his share of the take… Cash registers overages or under-ages requiring investigation, squabbles among staff members... building maintenance issues, grounds to be kept up... Non-stop and constant, no rest for the weary!
My new Harley riding bud tried several times to get free long enough to show me around and do some riding, but things always seemed to fizzle because of the next new challenge…
Late one afternoon, however, a crack offered a small window of opportunity to do something, but it wouldn’t involve riding. Nope, we’d be going down several miles of gravel roads, so four wheels were preferable this time.
We rode down by the lake, only on the other side. There was a waterfall to be viewed, and the view of the lake from there would be different and good… It was!
Waterfall
Lake view
We left the serene setting of that lake and rode down to the Kingfisher for a… you know… Then, we rode towards another lake to view that, but mostly to see if we might come across a bear or two… they have been reported there recently.
Bears!
A momma bear and her cubs... These were all the bears we saw, but it was worth the ride back in there anyway... One of the cubs seemed unperturbed by our slow drive-by, and I do think he was actually posing for us! Arden got a much better photo of that little rascal, so I asked how she zoomed in to get the shot...
The big 'ham'
She then proceeded to upgrade and expand my photo-taking skill inventory immensely! Who'd a thunk it? Shucks, at the rate I'm going now, in another thirty or forty years, I just may become one heck of a photographer!!!
DDT
