Frozen Nation

By Dr ew Horgan

What was supposed to be a normal, relaxing Alaskan cruise for Garett Smith turns into the discovery of a lifetime. After finishing the Alaskan cruise, Garrett decides to try camping in the Alaskan wilderness. It’s during this camping trip that he accidentally discovers the Wallalko tribe. This an Eskimo tribe that was thought to be a legend. It was said that when the ice age started, the tribe decided to wait it out in what they thought was the start of another winter storm in a cavern full of tunnels. As the years passed, they learned to adapt and thrive in this unique environment. As Garrett discovers and learns more about the Wallalko tribe, he must decide to either stay and become the tribe’s latest member or leave the tribe and return to the real world and help fight global warming to protect the tribe from ever being discovered. What will be his decision?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hawes & Jenkins Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9781637843499

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Frozen Nation

Drew Horgan

ISBN 978-1-63784-348-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63784-349-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Drew Horgan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Hawes & Jenkins Publishing

16427 N Scottsdale Road Suite 410

Scottsdale, AZ 85254

www.hawesjenkins.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

To the love of my life, who has helped guide me in so many awesome adventures.

I had decided to take a cruise to Alaska this year. I never would have thought what a life-changing adventure it turned out to be.

1

Cruise

2

Skagway

3

Hiking Alaska

4

Awake

5

Tour

6

The Great Room

7

Tom Harding and the Saltyweed Field

8

Lost

9

Decision

10

Celebration

11

Leaving and Found

12

Homeward and Next Steps

Help Save the Wallalko Tribe by Making a Change

About the Author

To the love of my life, who has helped guide me in so many awesome adventures.

I had decided to take a cruise to Alaska this year. I never would have thought what a life-changing adventure it turned out to be.

1

Cruise

I had decided to take an Alaskan Cruise this year for my much-needed vacation. It had been a very long and stressful year, and I just wanted to get as far away as I could from everything. After the seven-day cruise was over, I was then going to extend my stay in Alaska afterward for a week and explore some of its beautiful interior landscapes. It took me about a month's worth of time just to work out all the details, but it was finally all set. Who knew there was so much to do in Alaska? I always just thought that it was just cold and snowy.

I flew into Vancouver two days before the cruise started. I wanted to make sure I wanted to be rested up before the cruise started. The time had finally come for the ship to leave port. I was all ready for my vacation to begin. The weather wasn't the best; a light rain had rolled in while we were boarding the ship. The ship's captain had assured us that once we were underway, the weather would clear up. My room was even better than I thought. It was bigger than it looked on the cruise-ship web page. Even from the bed, you could look out the balcony onto the ocean. The balcony was the best part of the room. I couldn't wait to just sit out there and look at the glaciers and animals as we sailed by.

After I was all unpacked, I decided to take a walk around the ship. I wanted to know where the lifeboats were; we all remember another ship and icebergs. I took a map of the ship just so I wouldn't get lost. Since my cabin was near the top of the ship, I thought it might be a good idea to start there and work my way down. Since it was early evening, I thought that if I found one of the ship's many cafés on my little excursion, I would stop and get a bite to eat.

I started on the sundeck; this was the second deck from the top. It looked like that was where a lot of the kid activities were located. They had a wading pool and a five-hole mini golf course. The next floor down was the spa deck. The workout and spa areas were located here, and there was a seafood restaurant on the other end. I thought I might try the workout area to make sure I kept up my fitness on the days we were out to sea only. Next deck down was the lido. This deck had rooms at one end, and at the other, there was a pool and a couple of places to eat. The next deck down was where my room was. It was the verandah deck; this deck had mostly passenger rooms on it. The ship's bridge was also on this floor. In the middle of the ship, all the shops were located. There were shops located on three decks, all located on top of each other. The next two decks were all more rooms. I found no need to walk these two floors. I then went to the promenade deck. This is where most of the action was. There were more shops here, a casino, and many different places to eat. I figured that I would continue my exploring, and on the way back to my room, I would stop here for something to eat. It took me a while to see everything on this deck. There was so much to see and do I almost didn't keep going. I finally came across another set of stairs and went down to the next deck. I know that if I didn't explore the ship now, I would regret it later. The next deck was the Atlantic, and this was much like the promenade deck—with lots of places to eat. There was a library, and the Internet café was on this deck. I figured that if I took any cool photos while on the ship, I could email them to my friends and family back home from here. The lifeboats were also on this deck. I had to remember that in case of trouble. From there I went to the lobby. This was the deck that you used to leave and board the ship for all of your shore excursions. Since I had booked at least one shore excursion for each port of call that we stopped in, I knew that I would become familiar with this deck. This deck also hosted the palladium. I had always heard of what great shows were put on during cruises, and I had hoped to catch one of them here. The next two decks were just more rooms, so I didn't even go down there.

Now was the hard part. I needed to decide where I was going to get something to eat. There were so many places along the way. Each of them looked really good. Since the weather had cleared up and it was still warm out, I thought it might be fun to pick somewhere that would allow me to eat outside and enjoy the views. Then I remembered that up on the lido deck, there was an outside grill. I took the elevator up to the lido deck and then went toward the rear of the ship to the grill. I ordered fish and chips with something to drink. The fish was Alaskan salmon, and it was grilled to perfection. I found myself a nice table with a good view and sat down to eat. As I sat there, I couldn't believe that this was all happening. It was starting to get very late, and all the stars were coming out. You could see the moon out in the distance giving off all the light that was needed. After eating, I was getting tired. It had been a long day. I had done a lot of walking around, exploring the ship. I wished I had had one of those gadgets that counted your steps. I figured I would go back to my room and sit on the balcony for a while before heading to bed.

As I sat on the deck, looking out, I thought that the captain was right, and the weather did clear up. As I gazed upon the night sky, all I could think about was how majestic the moon and stars looked. I thought that there was no way I could ever get this view, where I