The Cole Family: Willow Tree Journals

By Curtis A. Gearhart

Although the Cole Family books are not numbered, this is the second one written. The first issue was Gunther grows up, I hope you read and enjoyed the story. This chapter in the lives of Gunner and Robin find them in Alaska, with many new challenges and a very special surprise about the Cole family history. I hope you continue spending time with the Coles and company. Feel free to contact me anytime by going to [e-mail].

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 27, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467078436

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

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Phone: [phone]

AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

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Phone: [phone]

© 2007 Curtis A. Gearhart. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 4/18/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4259-6195-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-7843-6 (ebk)

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CLOSING

INTRODUCTION

We pick up now where we left off in the first book, Gunther Grows Up. This is their first morning in the last frontier. A lot of adventure and plenty of trial and error await our young couple in their new homeland.

There are people to meet, places to see, and a train load of work to do. Besides, this book contains the beginnings of Gunther’s past, way before Pa-paw was born.

So please feel free to relax and get up to speed with the Cole family and friends. I know they’d love to have you in their home, just as they love being in yours.

This book was written at the Hotel Nashville, overlooking beautiful downtown Nashville, Indiana. A great town!

I would like to take a moment to thank the ones who have done the most to help me on the Cole family project(s).

I do not know all your names, but you who read these books are the ones who deserve the thanks. Those of you who I have signed a copy for, you are my motivation to continue. My hat is off to every one of you.

- THANK YOU -

curtis

This book is in memory of the most patient man in the world…my dad!

July 23, 1944 - July 26, 2004

You were a great man and I will miss you every day of my life.

Hi Nik

CHAPTER 1

Cold, windy, and dark. It was ten in the a.m. on Robin and Gunther Cole’s first wake-up in the last frontier, Alaska. Well, here we are honey, he said with his goofy grin and messy hair. Alaska, Rob replied with a curious look reflecting back from inside the big kitchen window of their snow-covered motor home.

By noon our fresh arrivals had prepared breakfast, gassed the rig, and were following the few plowed roadways in and around Fairbanks. Time to cruise the town proved short when the snowflakes picked up speed and size. Rob spotted a café/motel with a fenced in lean-to half full of boats and campers. The sign out front read Hink’s. Inside they found a diner, gift shop, pay telephone, and a hotel-type front desk. Rob began asking questions at the desk about room rates and RV storage. During that time, Gunner wandered off to the gift shop to seek out postcards for he and his sweety to send home.

Mrs. Cole wrote down all the information she needed on storage for the rig and secured a room for one week in the one-story motel. With room keys in hand, she went to the gift shop to check on her husband’s progress. Gunther had several picturesque postcards to mail and was in the process of purchasing a freshly baked apple pie made from Washington state apples. As if he wasn’t excited enough about the pie, he had purchased a quart of freshly squeezed milk from a dairy just outside of town. Day one in Alaska was forming up right nicely for our young couple.

Rob eagerly helped carry the goodies to the room she had awaiting them at the end of the snow-covered sidewalk. Twelve new inches had blessed the Fairbanks area since ten a.m. that very morning. The small and very tidy room had a sleeping area, small couch, mini fridge, two-burner stove top, and no oven. The bathroom was smaller than the one in the rig, but it was clean and had the required bathroom appliances.

On the wall with the window there was a small stand with a television on top. Gunner zoomed right in on it and pulled the switch. As the picture began to fill in, he shouted out Rob, it’s color. While he sat in front of the only channel the set picked up, Rob returned to the rig for cups, bowls, and spoons. The happy young couple pigged-out on pie and had milk moustaches halfway to their foreheads. Afterward they fell asleep talking about the television as they were watching it. The TV had long been popular in big towns, but these young adults (especially Gunther) had seen very little of it.

After a short nap, they decided to bring in supplies from the rig and prepare to park it for the winter. They opted to rent space in the same spot they resided, Hink’s. By bedtime they had the rig parked and wrapped till spring. As they walked back toward their room, they met a man coming out the diner door. He marched up and introduced himself as Jasper…Jasper Hinkle Jr.. He was the proprietor, like his father before him. Dad drove us up here when I was six. Yep. Dad, Ma, my five sisters and me (the youngest). The Hinkles were from somewhere in Kentucky but Jasper couldn’t recollect where. When Robin said that they were from Ohio, he just smiled and said, Ohio, I heard of that.

Jasper offered to take our new arrivals to town (about three miles away) and show them around a bit. They thought that a great idea and agreed to meet in an hour or so, over at the garage.

The town was knee deep in snow most everywhere, and automobile traffic was all but none. Jasper was driving them around in a old all-wheel-drive, five-ton army truck from World War II. It seemed to roll right through the deep snow and hilly roads (trails). Soon enough they pulled up in front of a log cabin with a sign in the window that read To sell gold, or buy beer, bring yourself on in here. Following ol’ Jasper in the thick wood door,