“How about eighteen five?” Rich said.
He leaned back in his chair and grinned some more at Rocky, he looked like some old horse trader closing a great deal.
“Done deal, we can go to the bank tomorrow and get the money and that will give Talltree enough time for the final workup on the bird,” said Mr. Richland while they signed the papers for the SUV.
“I had better get to the store, get supplies and some clean clothes on, and I need to get health certificates for the dogs and get their stitches looked at.”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Jen Martin called,” Rich said.“Meet her at the knit shop before nine tonight. She has a safe place for you and the dogs to stay tonight."
“I can get there on time, if I don’t get stuck in the grocery checkout line.”
Jen Martin is Doc’s sister, and other than being a little on the wild side for Rocky’s taste, her heart was in the right place all the time. Jen was to the willow as Rocky was to the oak. They have known each other forever. Jen taught Rocky to knit.
The supplies for the trip were purchased including new jeans and a T-shirt, something more girly than the Alaskan flannel lumberjack look or imprinted pizza delivery ad.
The dogs went back to the doggie ER and got their health certificates and a re-check on their stitches. Lovie went into a hot tub whirlpool bath for a treatment for her sore muscles. Phoebe was too suspicious of the bath looking part and took a pass on that. The stitches in her mouth were doing well, the vet was pleased with her progress. Phoebe only glared at him when he wanted to shine the light in her eyes. She must have liked this vet a lot.
Rocky left with a bag of ointment samples for the dogs. The vet tech pointed out that it would not hurt a human, either, nodding toward her 3-D full color, surround sound face.
They spent the night in Jen’s yarn shop at the corner of International and Old Seward Highway, the dogs had their beds with them and were acting like this was a very good idea, why can’t they live there?
Much, much later after closing the shop, Jen Martin and Rocky sat with a glass of wine and talked of nothing more important than knitting socks and which yarn should be used for knitting up the samples for the next few months. Rocky splurged with some of the SUV sale money. She bought yarn for a sweater.
Jen commented, "Does California get cold enough for a sweater?"
“Does the Donner Party, sound familiar? Jen, Dad’s cabin is really close to Donner Summit, and you can definitely freeze to death there, even nowadays. I will have to rig up a plus size dog coat for Lovie, and something that will stay on Phoebe, Missy Wiggle Worm. Tony dumped their winter gear, too,” Rocky said.
“Good thing you knit, that will be something to think about other than that dick face Tony,” Jen suggested, holding up some Hills of Scotland green wool.
“I have a great idea, why don’t I make a takeout bag for the dogs and you just get comfortable for the night?” Jen said.
“Good idea Jen, my eyes are about to slam into the locked down tight position,” Rocky had been yawning for the past few minutes.
“That wine hit me like a ton of bricks, I should have had some dinner, I better get home while I still have eyes open enough to drive,” Jen said this, but she was putting things into bags and clearing off the front counter.
Rocky was still asleep on the parlor couch when Jen arrived to open the store in the morning. She rolled off the couch and slung herself together.
The dogs helped Jen look over the back of the store and they left for a walk, while Jen started her work day.
The SUV was parked for the night behind the small store where it did not show from the street. The vehicle looked untouched, although it had acquired a parking ticket.
How Rocky hated this part, the part when you finally have to say goodbye, Jen was so much a part of her life here. Her heart was being pulled out of her chest again.
Phoebe seemed to know what was happening and stood as close to Jen as the dog's abused psyche would allow while she said goodbye to her human friend. Phoebe gave Jen the tiniest kiss on the cheek. Phoebe could not bear to do that any longer and ran pell mell to the car. The women looked at each other in astonishment.
“Wow, I’m honored, and after all she has only known me for five years.” Jen had tears in her eyes because the shy, spooky formerly abused dog had finally made a warm and emotional action toward her.
“Wow, I’m flabbergasted, she doesn’t even kiss Talltree, he feels rewarded if she hasn‘t bitten him,” Rocky explained.
Those emotional partings were going to be spread out, fortunately it will be at least another day before she must say goodbye to her beloved Alaska.
There was trouble standing in the parking lot. The SUV pulled into the open space in front of the flight service building. The dogs were growling a low rumbling sound at the side door. They, too, saw Tony, and they had plenty of unfinished business with him. Rocky opened the car door wide enough to get herself out of the vehicle, and walked straight up to where her husband blocked the office door.
“Hey Baby, you look a little rough around the edges,” Tony said as he rocked from one hip to another like some wannabe boxer.
Rocky was four feet from him when she stopped and stared at him.
“What do you want Tony?”
“I want the keys to my plane, you know what I want Rocky,” he took a step toward her.
“No.”
Rocky covered the distance between them and he took a half step backward.
“Yeah, it is mine and I want the keys now,” he looked straight at her, his hands curled into fists. He threw a punch at her middle with his uninjured right hand.
This time Rocky was expecting it and ducked. Coming up she lead with her left and connected with his body square in the soft belly and he went down to his knees.
“You brain dead bastard, get off the airport now, I’m calling the cops,” Rocky was yelling and she could hear people running inside the building. She surely hoped they were running to her, not away from her.
The door to the office building burst open. Rich Richland and Talltree were scooping Tony off the ground as the sirens were getting louder and the police cruisers pulled into the parking lot. As the officers swarmed out of the cars, Talltree mumbled to her.
“Damn, Sis, where did you learn a left upper cut like that?”
“You saw that? My big brother taught it to me on my twelfth birthday, he said someday I might need it,” Rocky answered quietly while rubbing her knuckles.
While Tony screamed at her, Rocky walked away from the melee of people. She retrieved the dogs from the SUV, walked them to the plane, and tied them off to the tire strut. Both dogs were still agitated.
With filing the police report and wondering if Tony would file assault charges against her, the day had melded into late afternoon. Even though both the plane and Rocky were instrument rated and could safely fly at night, Rocky was feeling that worn out feeling again.
When she started her preflight, she finally noticed that she had not put the floats on the plane.
When Rocky bought the Twin Otter airplane, it came equipped with detachable floats with the wheels built in and separate skis. She was not flying through Alaska and Canada without them. She would leave in the morning if she must. Morning started at four thirty AM, that time of year in Anchorage.
Spotting Talltree her mechanic, she waved him over and they hauled the floats and plane skis out of her equipment storage shed. The floats were not hard to install. It certainly was easier with two people to do it. The skis they strapped onto the float pontoons.
Talltree talked in a soft voice across a pontoon.
”Don’t worry, those cops aren’t buying Tony’s sad song. One of those guys is the one who took you to the hospital last night. I think he is still pissed at what Tony did to the dogs.”
“I hope that they will let me leave the state,” Rocky whispered back at him while they worked.
“Rocky, we need to go t
hrough that whole check list again,” Talltree cranked down on the last bolt.
The PD and Tony were gone, and everyone returned to the ops office. The parking apron and runway were finally quiet.
“Forgetting to put the floats on is inexcusable; I could have cost you big time,” Talltree verbally kicked himself.
“Don’t start, that’s why two people do the checks.” She shoved the checklist clipboard at him. Together they started the hour-long checklist for overnight flights that they made up years ago.
Rocky would do the short version before leaving in the morning and every morning of the trip.
Talltree taxied the plane over to the gas pump, and Rocky took the dogs for a pit stop. While she waited for them, she decided it was too late to leave then. She was too worn out from emotions to concentrate on the long flying ahead.
“I filled the aux tanks, too, mark that off my check sheet,” Talltree completed the rundown checklist and they called it a day.
“I guess, that is it, might as well hit the bricks, while I can.” Getting misty eyed; she did not do these goodbyes at all well. She could not take extended goodbyes and instantly changed her mind about leaving in the morning.
“Tonight or never,” she blubbered to Phoebe.
“Hey, not so fast, you have to come in for a cup of coffee, one for the road,” Talltree was out of the cockpit and hustling her toward the farewell party in the office.
Chapter 3
“Lovie, Phoebe, find life jacket,” Rocky told the dogs after she reached behind the pilot’s seat to swing the lid of the bin up. That stretch almost broke her arm off at the socket every time she managed to get it latched to the bulkhead.
“Find life jacket, now,” she repeated the instructions. It took a long time to teach the dogs to do this, but they were not doing a landing on a strange lake until they have their life jackets on.
Lovie brought her human a sweatshirt.
“Lovie, find life jacket,” Rocky took the shirt and put it on the passenger seat.
Phoebe brought a life jacket and dropped it next to Rocky.
“Good girl Phoebe, find Lovie’s life jacket.”
Phoebe turned back behind the seat and Lovie’s big face appeared around the seat with her mouth full of another ratty sweat shirt.
“Okay, I don’t have to be hit with a brick.”
“Yes, the water is cold. I understand, sweater on you first, good girl, find life jacket, Lovie. Then we will put the sweater on you,” Rocky assured the Boxer.
“Darn dog is smart enough to know that water is cold,” Rocky told the cool air in the cockpit.
Rocky knew what their actual chances of survival were in one of the glacial lakes.
“All right girls, let’s get some air and flip on the autopilot and get dressed. You guys are such smart puppies,” Rocky verbally rewarded her dogs.
That elicited a good round of dog tail thumps against the floor of the Twin Otter aircraft.
"Going up,” Rocky called out.
Nosing the plane up, when they reached 5000 feet, Rocky engaged the autopilot. Shortly thereafter they were into floatation devices and Lovie seemed content having an old sweatshirt on under her life jacket.
Rocky reached around and clipped the dogs into the safety harness' Talltree made for them.
They were down and Skoogit Lake was smooth skimming on the floats to the gas pump on the dock. Within fifteen minutes, they were out of the plane, stretching their legs, having had a pit stop, and a short snack. Rocky picked up after the dogs and checked the weather service by phone for the latest in-flight data.
Not bad, they could probably get all the way through Canada with great weather. Maybe even start enjoying the flying. It had been awhile since she flew for the sheer fun of flying. Though Rocky wanted to get to California as soon as possible; that did not preclude smelling a few of the roses along the way.
Swinging out over the ocean and looking for whales was tempting, but the safer way to do this trip was along the coastal interior slice that had scattered communities along it.
The tattered old windsock on the floating gas station was hanging noodle limp. It was time for the travelers to do the checklist and be on their way. This leg would fly over several glaciers and Rocky expected some turbulence in those areas, but nothing that she had not experienced flying daily over Matanuska Glacier.
They had been back in the air for an hour and the flying had been smooth and easy, the big glacier was right below them but Rocky did not know the name. Her flight map showed it, but no name was listed.
There was the bump and they went up and then a fast swoop down. Rocky pulled back on the stick and reached up for air. Up was safe. The extra 500 feet had smoothed out some of the bumps and Rocky looked at the huge glacier below. Incredible what God had created.
Her plan was to set down for the night in Sitka. Rocky had always wanted to visit there. If the bird needed something more than gas, she could probably get it there.
They had flown over the little community of Yakutat a while ago and Gustavus was coming up next. After passing those small communities, it was still a long way to Sitka.
When Rocky first started flying with the dogs, it seemed like they had to have a relief stop every two miles. They were nervous, and one or the other was always making their, I have to go now, squeak. After logging hundreds of air hours together, they settled back and slept or looked at the clouds or scenery. Rocky calculated she should do a four-hour leg, before one of them needed a pit stop.
With the auxiliary fuel tanks installed the plane is capable of flying for almost ten hours before needing a fuel up.
Rocky was feeling tired even though the flying was easy and the scenery was breathtaking. She was feeling the let down of the emotions of the past several days.
Haines was a short distance away. Over the small city they would turn toward the ocean and make the lengthy flight leg into Sitka. One of the things she wanted to try while in the air over nowhere was making the cell phone work. She keyed up directory assistance for Sitka.
“Isn’t technology wonderful, with my cell phone and my credit card I’m on hold for the ticket office of the Sitka Music Festival.” Rocky told the snoozing dogs.
"If I hold my tongue right, I might get a ticket for the performance tonight."she announced to the still sleeping dogs.
Done deal, a festival ticket awaited her at the box office, the plane is off autopilot and she only had to fly to Sitka for an enjoyable evening. They would sleep in the plane to make up the expense of the ticket.
The cockpit instruments advised that Haines was off to the right, though it was not visible. Rocky called ATC and advised air traffic control that she was beginning the leg to Sitka. She really did not have to do that, but it was a good habit to keep. There were no old, bold, pilots for good reason.
Rocky saw them; she did not know what kind of bird they were. She did not want them thinking the plane was a predatory flying dinosaur. They would scatter in every direction from their flying formation right into the silver and blue Twin Otter.
Before she was upon the flock, she banked to the right toward the ocean. She grabbed some air for safety for the birds and the plane.
Rocky would love to know what kind of bird they were and have a better look at them, but large birds and airplanes do not mix well.
“Make that don’t mix at all,” Rocky laughed at her own humor. Lovie lifted her head and looked sleepy eyed at the woman. She laid her big head back on her paws.
“Guess my joke wasn’t that funny,” Rocky said aloud to the already sleeping Boxer.
Rocky was definitely ready to get out and walk around, her butt was tired of this seat, and her legs ached from working the pedals.
Reaching into the map case she pulled out the stash of candy bars and opened a Snickers. As soon as the dogs heard the wrapper crinkle they were awake. Phoebe had hopped onto the co-pilot seat and Lovie moved forward to put her front paws on the deck.
&nb
sp; “No Snickers, for you gals, here is something as yummy,” she said to her canine flight assistants.
When they spotted the baggie full of cheese cubes and moose salami pieces, they forgot the candy bar. Each of the trio had a squirt out of the sports water bottle. The snack had awakened them for the rest of the flight and feeding the dogs their treat had helped pass the miles.
There were more small villages below the plane and more small planes around them. Most of the villages were tiny wooden structures on stilts clustered over a bay. Soon they would be over Sitka and she radioed into the airport to advise them of her arrival time.
Checking Sitka runway length again in the Jeppesen manual Rocky confirmed that Sitka airport was paved. It had lights, and was long enough for the plane and a runway with rollout aprons. What a treat, all the modern conveniences. A change from what Rocky usually landed on in the Alaskan bush, for sure, she thought. They would be on the ground in ten minutes.
Rocky sent the dogs back into the cargo section on their beds for the landing and clipped their safety halters into the rings mounted into the bulkhead.
That short final was a bit bumpy coming down with a little crosswind off the harbor.
They were in Sitka and it was a refreshing 55F and looked like it was going to rain. The dogs were stretching under the plane after Rocky got the plane tied out on the apron.
The man at the ops office, where she paid the rental and landing fees, told her it was a two-mile walk into town. The hike sounded good to her, and was not a problem with the two dogs. They were on their way into town as soon as the plane was gassed up and tied down.
It was around four thirty on the misty afternoon when the trio started their tour of Sitka, and the hunt for a nice dinner.
What a cute little town, Rocky thought. The harbor was full of fishing boats, and the trees were real size trees. Rocky knew they were in Southeast Alaska by the size of the trees. In Anchorage and points north, if there were trees they are short. This area looked more like the Pacific Northwest than the Arctic.
They played tourist and Rocky bought a bag of kettle corn and three “I Heart Sitka” buttons at one of the numerous gift shops. She pinned a button on each of the dog’s collars and saved the third to go onto the plane.
Ms. Got Rocks Page 2