I sold the trailer the following spring. I got a deal on a couple of slightly larger tires for the truck but could only get two for the rear and never stopped to think that the front tires would be spinning faster then the back ones while it was in four wheel drive. The truck also had a system where the four wheel drive would kick in automatically if you were not getting good traction. I headed back up towards Alaska and stopped to pick up a hitch hiker in Canada. He was an Indian from a local tribe and had been gold panning on his grandfathers claim. He was heading up north to Alaska as well. We hit it off pretty well and I was happy to have him along. He had about seven thousand dollars in gold and I had about the same in cash. The journey was over two thousand miles and we would stop for the night when we were tired. We would take his gold to jewellers who would give him that days price for his gold. We would take girls back to our hotel room and had plenty of alcohol and marijuana. My truck would go about eight hundred miles with both tanks full of diesel. We were beginning to get further north and were not seeing anyone on the snowy roads. We drove along the road for an entire day while drinking beer and did not see one person or other cars. We finally got close to Yellowknife, Canada and spotted somebody alongside the road. It was a a security guard for the oil companies. He said that we had missed a turn, hundreds of miles to the south and that we had to go all of the way back before we could begin heading west towards Alaska. He said that there was no road heading west from Yellowknife towards Alaska. We began talking some more and he said that there was actually an oil road across frozen lakes and rivers but that there were no gas stations along the way and that it was over eight hundred miles to Whitehorse, Canada from there. I said that I had two tanks on my truck and could do around eight hundred miles on both tanks. He said that his job was actually to patrol several oil rigs along that road and that I could follow him if I wanted to. We followed him for hours into the night until he finally came to a stop. He told us that there were no more turns on the road and said that if we stayed on the road and did not run out of gas that we would come to the highway into Whitehorse. We thanked him for his help and drove down the road until the next morning. The sun was just coming up and my second tank was getting close to empty. We had driven over eight hundred miles and needed to find a gas station quickly. We came up over a ridge and there was the highway. It was a huge relief but we were still not seeing a gas station. We arrived in Whitehorse, Canada, running on fumes and pulled into a gas station. I filled up both tanks and put it in gear to drive away when I heard a loud bang that sounded like a grenade going off. The transfer case had exploded because the wheels had been spinning all night on the icy roads at different speeds as I had bigger tires on the rear of the truck. There was nothing that I could do, being so far north. The parts would take a week to get shipped up from the south and would be very expensive. I ended up selling the truck to the guy at the gas station for the price of the diesel that I had put in it. We were now on foot hitch hiking in freezing weather. We got a lift from a guy who was going to his cabin out in the woods so we got let out on the side of the road. We began hitch hiking again but could not get another lift and there were hardly any cars coming along the road. It began getting dark and an incredible blizzard was kicking up. The temperature started dropping quickly and we thought that we were going to freeze to death. My friend suggested that we go into the woods and look for this guys log cabin who had previously given us a lift. The snow was over our knees on the side of the road and I said that it was not a good idea so he went off into the woods and I stayed on the road. A forestry worker came along the road about an hour later. I told him about my friend so he took me about a thirty minute drive to a motel up the road and then went back to look for my friend. I was very happy to not have frozen to death but was hoping that my friend was okay. The forestry worker showed up around two hours later with my friend and he was fine. I woke up the next morning and there was about three inches of ice around the motel room door. I had to kick it a couple of times to get it open. I realised that we would have frozen to death if the forestry worker had not come along. We hitched a ride to the Alaskan border the next day but they would not let my Canadian friend in. We said goodbye to each other and I asked him what he was going to do. He said that he was going back to one of the hotels where we had stayed to see one of the girls that we met. She had left him her telephone number. I hitched a ride to Valdez, Alaska and made enquiries about getting on the oil spill cleanup for a third year. They said that they were downsizing that year and were looking for proof of Alaskan residency from potential employees. The chances of my getting hired did not look good. I went down to the harbour to check with the fishing boats about possible work. One of the boats hired me and we baited hooks for a week in the harbour and then set off to sea. We were out at sea for a month. They had another boat that was serving as a tender boat. It would come out and take our fish and then resupply us. We hit two or three season openers and then went back to shore in Kodiak, Alaska. The captain had an office in town and I spoke to him out front of it. He said that I should go and have a drink and that he would have my money for me later. I went back by his office after having a couple of beers and his secretary told me that he had left on his boat. I asked if he had left me a pay check and she said no. This was devastating news because my money had just about run out. He owed me over five thousand dollars for a month of back breaking work. The secretary was laying out some checks that he had signed on the table as we spoke. I went outside fuming about what he had done. I turned around and looked through the window and the secretary had gone in the back with the signed checks still on the counter. I went back into the office and took one of the checks that he had signed and wrote in the amount of money that he owed me. I went back into the bar and asked the bartender if she could cash it. She said yes but that I had to leave it with her awhile. I told her to get the other guys in the bar a round on me and sat down at a table. She gave me a couple of funny looks and the next thing I knew was the police at the front door. I shouted at the guys in the bar to hold them off and I ran out the back door. I ran around the side of the bar and climbed in a large fish box. The police came running around after me and they did not know where I went. They were practically standing right next to me. I managed to get a flight off of the island and made some enquiries about the captain not paying me. I was told that I would need to take him to civil court and get a lawyer. All of that would cost me money that I did not have. This really got me thinking about how unfair life was and that you could be easily cheated unless you were already established with money for lawyers. The only other option was using violence which I had used in the past when faced with problems. This could have gotten me paid but it would likely to have gotten me put in jail as well. I managed to get on some more boats after that and get paid for my work. My nose was beginning to bleed uncontrollably again and I knew that there was a problem. I thought that I would get a place to stay in Anchorage, Alaska which was closer to a hospital if I needed it. I got a room in a hostel there and sat down to watch the television. I fell asleep in the chair and did not wake up until early the next morning. I was unusually groggy and looked down at my shirt which was completely saturated with blood. I was taken to the hospital and explained to them about the bioremediation. The hospital got in touch with Exxon who seemed to be expecting the call. They agreed to pay all of my hospital expenses. They did some more cauterisation of the blood vessels in my nose and released me. I began to think that there might be more to this bioremediation that I was aware of. I found out that it was engineered to stay in the host whether it was plant, animal or human and break down any oil or brood vessel membrane in my case. I contacted Exxon and asked them if I get some testing done or further cauterisation if necessary. They refused so I contacted the media and they sent a reporter around to interview me. There had been a huge amount of media coverage on the oil spill. My interview went on the air a couple of days later and the phone at the hostel began to ring off of the hook. I had left the number with the television station and asked them to give it out to whomever contacted them on my behalf. I received a call from a Mr. Melvin Belli who was a lawyer in San Francisco. He said that he was representing some people who had been working in the tents on the Exxon barge that I was previously on. He said that they were experiencing similar medical issues to mine. Mr. Belli offered to sign me up as a client and fly me to Dallas, Texas where I would be checked over by a medical specialist. He flew me to Dallas and put me up in the Holiday Inn there with all expenses paid. I had forwarded my contact details at the Holiday Inn to the television station who had interviewed me in Alaska. Several people were still contacting me including someone that was writing a book about the oil spill and a reporter from CNN. The person who was writing the book asked me if they could send someone around to get information from me about the spill cleanup. I said that I was going to the medical center for testing during the day but that I had my lunch daily at the Holiday Inn courtesy of Mr. Belli. I said that they could meet me for lunch every day if they wanted to. They sent a woman around every day with her laptop to question me over lunch. CNN asked me if I would do an exclusive interview with the other oil spill workers at the medical center. This obviously meant that we were not allowed to be interviewed by any other television stations. The others would not agree and said that they had already secured an interview with real news for kids which was another television program. I told them that it was a poor choice on their part as CNN was much more well known. They were very jealous of me however and felt as though I was getting preferential treatment from our lawyer. They refused the CNN exclusive interview in favour of the other one. I began to think about how to get my life in order. I thought that I was doing okay considering where I started from but that I really needed a way to boost my life a little bit. The woman who was interviewing me daily for the book was not attractive but she had money. I was a good looking guy and I could tell that she was attracted to me. She had been working as a TV director for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for several years and created Barney the Dinosaur. She was a millionaire and I thought that this might give me the boost that my life needed. We were married a couple of months later and I moved into her house with her young son in Dallas, Texas. This was really a change of pace for me. All of her friends were millionaires and I was hanging out with them. I kept thinking about what they would think if they knew who I was and about my background. We would go on ski and beach vacations and I would occasionally join her when she interviewed the rich and famous. She interviewed a Mr. David Saperstein in Houston and we spent the night at his mansion. We had dinner with him and his wife along with several other people at a large table in his wine cellar. Him and I were walking around his mansion and his servants had placed bread, ham along with crackers and one thousand dollar an ounce pate out for the guests. The crackers were finished so I unknowingly made a sandwich out of this pate. It is without a doubt the most expensive sandwich that I have ever had. He opened a bottle of Chateau Lafite which apparently cost thousands and we all had a pretty good time. I had been going to the gym regularly so his limo took me to a gym the following day where the former president George Bush went.

Next Chapter: Chapter ten