Slim Randles is back as today’s Wednesday’s Guest, so please help me give him and Dud a warm welcome. I think Dud especially needs the warmth. You’ll understand when you read the post from Slim. Before you do, join me in a cup of coffee and a bite of chocolate. This is not the way the guys down at the Mule Barn Truck Stop drink their coffee, but they don’t have to know that we went the fancy-schmancy route. Enjoy….
It was time to do it. I mean, Dud had specifically dropped more hints than World War II bombs that he had always craved a pair of snowshoes, and Anita had given him a good set of wood and Babiche trail shoes … (the good ones … 12 by 56) for Christmas.
Only problem at Christmas was … it’s hard to justify snowshoes when there’s only an inch of snow on the ground. But now, this morning, the world is a powdery white and it’s time to do it.
So just after breakfast, Dud Campbell walked on down to the field next to Lewis Creek and strapped them on. Kinda weird. But fun. After a little practice, Dud was shuffling along like nobody’s business on those shoes.
Only two more miles, Dud thought, looking back at his following dog team. Only two more miles of packing trail and he’d be in Nome. The Iditarod! Eleven hundred miles of driving a dog team and he’d only had to pack trail for the dogs twice. He smiled through the tunneled parka hood. It takes a real Alaskan to do this job right, of course, and Dud was the one to put the sour in sourdough!
Well, he thought, looking up at the yellow-diamond sky, there’s the old Miller place on the left. Well, where the old Miller placed used to be, anyway. Had to take it down, so all that’s left is this field … this field stretching to …
The North Pole, of course.
Oh, others had been here before. Peary and Henson in 1909 and a bunch of others since then. But they hadn’t done it on snowshoes alone. No way. He would be the first. And he wondered … when I get there, will there be some sort of monument left by the others? Some way of telling I’m really there?
Ah, these snowshoes … great opener of doors for Dud’s imagination. Of course, there’s only one reason to reach the North Pole.
He’s always wanted to write in his diary, “From there I turned south.”
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Brought to you by Jesse Vint’s novel, William the Conqueror vs. King Harold. Now available at Amazon.com.
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Jesse Lee Vint is known to have said, “When it comes to storytelling, I’m pretty good. When it comes to marketing, networking, and self-promotion, I am an orangutan playing with a tire — just ask anybody.”
When I read that on his Amazon author page, I had to smile. I can relate. How about you?
Before embarking on a writing career, Jesse Lee Vint spent many years in film and television, acting and directing. He is best known for his role in Macon County Line, that included his brother, Alan, both in starring roles.
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Slim Randles is the author of Home Country, the book that evolved from his popular weekly column of the same name. If you enjoy his offering here, you will like his book.,