Hi James.

I have been here for 9 days now alone with only E-mail contact to Petropavlovsk and various friends and family. I could use the Satellite phone but somehow that is just too much connecting and talking to the outside world which would take away from the wildness of this isolated country, I think. Until this year we have had no phone or any other means of getting word in or out. We finally decided we might be pushing the envelope just a bit too much in case there was some kind of emergency.

Charlie was supposed to arrive, flying down in his ultralite from Petropavlovsk on June 12th at about 4:00PM. At 10:00PM he hadn't arrived . I drank a shot of brandy and fell asleep, praying he was OK. He had an engine problem just before leaving; the fixing of which only he can describe. He is exhausted from all the stress of fixing the plane and flying it down safely. His story next time. When I heard the sound of his airplane's engine just beyond the volcano I was so happy. The 3 cubs were asleep beside the cabin as he did his by-pass (to test wind for landing).

It is a bleak, cold and foggy day here today. We long for warmth again.

6/14/1998: Charlie is out flying, trying to locate our cubs today. We had a bit of a storm and we haven't seen them since yesterday noon. Normal behavior for cubs being reintroduced, but we are typical parents and we worry too much.