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I’m sitting here in the guest room in Bronk’s appartment. Bronk is my boss, the owner of Chicken’s Café. Apparently it’s standard behavior for him to let people stay the night. I've been here two nights now, but hopefully I'm up to Chicken today to get settled in.

When I roadtrip alone, I have a tendency to just drive straight through. I’m not going to stop and walk around in an area that could have any number of animals by myself. I dislike stopping in bigger cities because I have a tendency to get lost. Really I need to stop only to refule myself or my car and to relieve myself. Truly, that doesn’t add up to stopping very often.  As such, I made better time than Bronk, or just about anyone else, thought I would…

I’m sitting here instead of in my new bedroom or living room because I made better time than I was supposed to. There’s currently no running water at Bronk’s properties in Chicken. Because they don't simply use well water like I am used to, it's a bit more complex than I thought. They use surface water and a filtration setup. There will be running water - when it's feasible. Perhaps tomorrow, more likely next week. It's been a cold late spring so the rivers have not thawed properly. So many being still frozen over has kept progress back quite a ways. Bronk has told me that there is a thawed creek, however, so I do have a source of water - it's just going to be a touch difficult. Electricity and the rest they have, I'm assured. They are also a tad unsure what to do for my living situation. I think it’s been fixed, but if it doesn’t work out they have a backup plan so that’s good. The way it’s been phrased to me is we will get two of the “back rooms”… I have reason to suspect we will be connected to the kitchen of the café we’ll be cooking at. Talk about a short commute! Though I am unsure how it's to be laid out and look, I am assured we will be using the cafe kitchen as our own personal kitchen as well as using it for the business. It'll be interesting.

We will be doing a comparably small volume of people. Typically, I’m used to the hundreds-of-people style tourism. This is more along the lines of 50 to 100 a day. I am sure when we get those rushes of EVERYONE wants lunch at the same time it will seem like high volume, and I do not think for an instant this summer will be without it's challenges. However, for the most part - a smaller volume than Chris and I initially conceived...It will be a good example to see how well Chris and I will work together.  Hopefully we’ll be a dynamic team seeing as how we plan to buy our own food cart within five years and have our own joint to travel with.

Bronk has explained to me the different types of people up there. Trying to brace me for some of the rougher people. He has assured me I need not take crap from anyone. We reserve the right to refuse service, and if someone is harassing me, he says to not only turn them away but to tell him about it. He keeps using the previous cook as an example, how she was so rough-and-tough and didn't take shit. I think after our brief time together, I look and sound like some young, sweet and innocent, can't handle all the bad stuff kind of person. I think he'll be surprised. Not only can I handle them, but I can wiggle around and make them work to my advantage. I have no fear in that matter.

Meanwhile, his descriptions have been interesting. Talking about the dredgers and hard-core guys who CAN get super grumpy and pissy if they're having a bad year. Not enough gold coming up, they get all pissed off and take it out on those around them. Then you have the Porch Miners, as he calls them. Or the Too Miners. They sit on the porch all day and whine - it's too hot, it's too cold, the water is too high, the water is too low - instead of going out there and mining. He says he still tolerates the porch miners because since they don't mine, they sit on the porch and spend a lot of their money at our establishments. Then, of course, you get the tourists who go to gold pan. Tourists are easy for me to handle. He says for the miners that they're a lot like backwoods ranchers. Well, I've dealt with all kinds, and even though miners are new I don't think their personalities are as new to me as I feared.

So yes, that's the word. Heading up to Chicken today. VERY excited. Going to stop by the grocery store and pick up some food before heading up so I have some basics to cook with. Still have the charcoal briquettes for the bbq and matches if I want to grill. Lets do this!