Kristin

My new book was published in early April and Kristin accompanied me to Dallas and then to Portland, Oregon for the book

signings Lillian had arranged. We spent two days on consecutive weekends in those two cities, each day lasting from the

bookstore’s opening at 10 in the morning until late evening. I estimated that I signed at least 50% more books than I had

signed the previous year in San Diego, Chicago and Atlanta.

“Maybe I’ve hit the big time at last,” I said to Kristin. “This means that, while I’m hot I need to be productive. But I have ideas

for enough books to last me another 5 or 6 years.”

“That’s marvelous,” Kristin replied. “Perhaps by then I’ll be ready to retire and we’ll have enough money socked away for us

to go into hiding and start a family.”

This was the first time the subject of family had come up so openly. We had both talked around the subject several times but

never had discussed our thoughts freely.

“How many of each do you want?” I asked, still using a light approach.

Kristin giggled before replying, “The question might be, if we continue making love as frequently as we do, how many children

will we have before we stop? Seriously, Paul, I would consider two of each.”

“I’ll go or that,” I responded. “As for our frequent love making, we use birth control techniques now, won’t we continue using

them?”

“After we’re married I’d like to stop using birth control, but neither of us wants 20 kids so I guess I will have to continue.

Maybe, instead of the pill we should buy an interest in a condom factory.”

Kristin had two assignments in May, 3 days in New York modeling casual wear, a much more conservative session than any

she had previously appeared in. Then, a week later, in Los Angeles, her session was almost the other extreme, modeling the

latest daring revelations in lingerie. And they were revelations. As inured as I thought I was by then to the almost nakedness

of models, my eyes were opened even more at this show. The bras all showed more cleavage than coverage and many of

the panties had velcro attachments that opened at the bottom. Many of the models chose to leave this open so potential

buyers would see the so-called incentives wearing these undies would create.

Kristin’s comments to me disparaged the whole idea. “If women want to parade their pubic area around why wear any

underpants?” I agreed with her wholeheartedly. But then, Kristin didn’t wear any clothing at all when she was parading for

me.

I accompanied Kristin to New York and then we stayed two extra days taking in new Broad-way shows. For the Los Angeles

show we drove each day to the convention center for Kristin’s sessions.

Following this our time was dedicated to wedding preparations. June 2 was approaching fast and Kristin had to have her

gown fitted. I decided to buy a tuxedo rather than rent one.

One evening we sat down and wrote a proposed ceremony, one that we revised several times before we met with the

minister for a practice run. She suggested a few minor changes which we incorporated into the ceremony.

All three of our parents and our two main attendants and their spouses, at our invitation, arrived on Wednesday, May 30, two

days earlier than the rest of the guests would arrive. We put them up for those two nights at a motel close to us and then, on

Thursday, gave them jobs to do.

My best man, Dan Williams, and his wife Joanna were given the task of arranging room assignments at the manor for each of

the guests who would be staying there. Mary Francone, Kristin’s matron of honor, and her husband Tony got on the phone to

call each of the other components of the wedding, making certain everything would be carried out as planned.

My parents, together with Kristin’s mother, set up a transportation schedule for the limo to pick up all the other guests who

would be flying in on Friday. In this way they had the opportunity to get better acquainted before the wedding.

Kristin and I arranged Thursday meals for all the early arrivals at a local restaurant.

With all the additional help Friday’s arrival of guests went off without a hitch. In all, 19 rooms of the manor were occupied by

31 guests, including a room set aside for Kristin’s preparation and another for mine.

Friday evening all 33 sat down to what I felt was the best catered meal I had ever had. Both beef and chicken entrees were

available, in enough quantity for those who asked for some of each. The champagne flowed freely helping everyone to relax,

especially when one of my college friends, John Bellonte, decided to make a roast of it with me as his target. I had never

seen this side of John before, primarily I suppose because in college we were inseparable buddies on the constant lookout

for available women and the occasion never arose when he could show me his witty side.

His roast, I’m sure, embarrassed my mother but probably nobody else in the group. His frequent reference to me as a

successful ‘tail gunner’ had everyone in stitches.

Once John started the ball rolling I got it from all sides, and Kristin wasn’t spared. Dan questioned whether I had ever done a

day’s work in my life. “Can you imagine,” he asked,

“writing down a few words on a piece of paper and getting paid for it? And then, what does he do? He’s getting married to a

woman who doesn’t have to work either. She just shows up every month or two to jiggle her torso in a fashion show and gets

paid for that.”

As I said, Mom was embarrassed but Kristin and I enjoyed every minute of it.

* * *

Saturday morning, preceding the wedding, I got the chance to get acquainted with Kristin’s brother Carl, his wife Cheryl, and

their 9 year old twin sons, Kevin and Kenneth. Carl was as good looking as his sisters were beautiful, as were the twins.

Carl informed me he had been looking forward to meeting the author of the ‘Pudge’ books. “I think I enjoyed reading them as

much as the boys did. It’s quite a coincidence that you’re marrying Kristin.”

The wedding went off like clockwork. With every guest and participant already at the manor there was no problem with

anyone arriving late. The ceremony began on time at 2 P.M.

and as far as we could tell met with everyone’s approval, especially because it was over shortly after 2:30.

While everyone was enjoying the reception that followed Kristin and I, after putting in what we thought was a necessary

appearance, disappeared.

We drove back to our apartment to change into something suitable for traveling, collected suitcases we had previously

packed and drove to the Los Angeles airport. Here, we boarded a flight to Seattle to spend the night before continuing on to

the fishing camp in Ontario, Canada.

We thought we had outfoxed everybody until Kristin opened her overnight case at our Seattle hotel and found it stuffed with

inflated condoms. All her wedding night lingerie had been removed. We broke up into paroxysms of laughter before

deciding to check the other suitcases. Fortunately, they appeared to be unchanged from the way we had packed them.

“I’m glad someone had fun at our expense, but what they didn’t know was that neither of us would wear PJs to bed tonight any

way, will we?” Kristin asked with a gleam on her eye.

After a celebratory dinner at the hotel we returned to our room for a night of fulfilling love making. Who needs pajamas?

Late the next morning we caught a flight to Montreal and from there a connecting flight run by the fishing resort, arriving at the

resort at dusk, in time for a late dinner.

Our cottage was at the end of a row of cottages along the lake, perhaps a hundred yards from the main lodge where all our

meals were served and other non-fishing activities took place. It was an idyllic spot, plenty of privacy and the hundred yard

walk for meals was nothing.

When we opened my main suitcase we found all the items that had been removed from Kristin's overnight case. Each item

had been stuffed separately in out of the way places and had not been visible until I unpacked. Then we found items such as

bras and panties and Kristin’s favorite peignoir stuffed in the toes of my boots, the sleeves of my jacket and other obscure

places. We had another good laugh.

Kristin, when she stopped giggling, made the comment, “And I thought I would have to go an entire week bra-less.” As soon

as she said this she removed her blouse and stood topless in front of me before adding, “Like this.”

We soon discovered there were some drawbacks to being in an isolated cabin. The next three days after our arrival it

rained, on and off, most of the day. And as soon as the rain stopped the mosquitoes came out, in hordes. To make it from

our cabin to the lodge without getting soaked, or bitten all over, we ran the entire distance three times a day.

Other than that our stay was idyllic. We made love for most of the first three days and nights. It didn’t matter to us what the

weather was like, our lovemaking blocked it all out.

On the fourth day the sun came out and we rose early to go fishing. When we arrived at the boat dock the guide welcomed

us as if we were old friends. That day and the next we fished most of the day, catching many trout either trolling with lures or

fly fishing. As Kristin had done little fishing of any kind her fly fishing was, more often than not, practicing the technique.

Towards the end of the second day she was adept enough to catch a few trout.

Saturday we flew back to Montreal and stayed there for two nights before returning home.

At home we had a lot of catching up to do. My mom and dad, with help from Kristin’s mom, had transported all our wedding

gifts from the manor, using the limo as a means of transportation. All of those gifts had been stacked in the garage for us to

tend to when we got back from our honeymoon. We were appalled at the quantity of gifts we had received.

Some, we knew, were small appliances which we could put into use as replacements for some older ones we had. Other

gifts we would store in the garage until a later time. Sorting through and storing, working at it leisurely, took almost a week.

One item we found gave us another laugh. Our friends were taking good care of us. Some joker, perhaps the same one as

before, had put a copy of a raunchy book among the gifts and had wrapped it in gift wrap to fit the occasion. The book was

entitled, ‘Safe Sex for Cowards.’ The joker had written a sub-title on the cover, ‘Written in Las Vegas by Virgins.’ I

suspected that our mysterious prankster was my friend, John Bellonte.

* * *

It was the middle of June and neither Kristin nor I had any commitments until late August. At that time Kristin was to return to

Paris for a repeat of the fashion show there. As a second timer she not only did not have to go through the training period

again she also would be one of the top ranked models in the show; at a much larger salary than the year before. This time I

received an invitation from the producer, to be ‘an honored guest.’

“You know what I would like to do for the next two months?” I asked Kristin one evening.

“No, what?”

“Go fishing and teach you how to fly fish.”

“That sounds like fun,” Kristin replied, sounding excited at the prospect.

“I’d like to go to Wyoming and other states in that part of the country. I have a story in mind that takes place there and I could

get a feel for the country as well as tap into some good fishing.”

“You make it sound even better,” Kristin said. “Keep going, what else did you have in mind?”

“Roughing it.”

“Roughing it?”

“At least part of the time. I’d like to do some primitive camping and ‘get back to the earth’ as my dad used to call it when we

went fishing. We could buy a tent and sleeping bags and other camping gear, or perhaps an RV of some kind.”

“Why not a tent trailer?” Kristin suggested. “We used to have one when I was little. We had some good camping trips in it.”

Kristin described her tent trailer, at least what she remembered. The more she described the more it sounded like the right

answer for us. “Of course that was 15 years ago. They’re bound to be even better now than they were then. And they’re light

enough so that we could pull one with your SUV.”

I think that was the clincher. In the morning we did some research and found four different dealers within 50 miles of us who

dealt in tent trailers. For the next three days we visited all of the dealers, looked at perhaps 20 trailers and finally selected

one we liked better than the others.

The dealer’s shop fitted my SUV with a hitch. We pulled the trailer home and pushed it into the garage. Of course, one of our

cars would have to be parked on the street but we could live with that.

We still needed sleeping bags and other gear, and to equip the little kitchen that was part of the trailer. These chores were

more like doing a Christmas shopping in June. In addition to equipping our new toy Kristin had to be equipped with all the fly

fishing accessories.

For two more days we sat with maps and tour guides and plotted routes we would take and places we would visit. We

bought and perused several books describing the area we planned to visit but knew that, as greenhorns to this kind of travel,

the books would only be an introduction to what we would find. But we needed to start someplace.

On Monday, June 25th, we started off feeling like adventurers at the beginning of a grand journey. As we had been told, my

SUV towed the trailer effortlessly, with no noticeable difference in the comfort of the ride or the proper operation of the SUV’s

systems. Even gas consumption was changed only slightly, losing perhaps one to two miles per gallon.

We drove northeast into Nevada and Utah, stopping at campgrounds along the way. Every-thing on the trailer worked to

perfection. The third day we reached Zion National Park and made a two night stopover to view the sights. Two days later

we crossed the border into Wyoming and felt our real adventure was just beginning.

For the entire month of July we stayed in western Wyoming, making a loop around the Wind River Range and exploring every

side road that extended any distance into the Bridger and Shoshone National Forests. Fishing was from fair to excellent

depending on the distance we were removed from civilization. And the scenery was magnificent.

On several occasions we followed roads until they became little more than tracks, on several occasions shifting into 4-wheel

drive to extend our penetration into the wilderness. The SUV handled like a dream and each time we found an idyllic

campsite close to a fish-loaded stream. We often walked several miles beyond that to reach fishing that at times was

fantastic. Kristin became quite adept at fly fishing and caught and released many nice trout.

My writing didn’t prosper, partly because we were so caught up in our adventure, partly because I had not, as yet, found the

right environment for the story I had in mind. I wasn’t too concerned; that would come.

To stay clean was sometimes a problem. After several attempts at washing ourselves using the icy cold water from a stream

we rigged a makeshift shower and heated water over a fire. The fun part was that we took turns pouring water over the

other’s naked body, without fail turning each other on. About once a week we returned to civilization to find a laundry with

shower facilities. Once we had to go to a motel.

We were both content with the life style we had temporarily adopted and knew it was going to be a big part of our lives in the

future. And we were sublimely happy with each other, so much so that Kristin suggested an earlier retirement than she had

planned so we could start our family and introduce them to ‘getting back to the earth.’

“How about one more year?” Kristin asked one night as we were lying back cooling off after a more passionate than usual

session of lovemaking.

“Are you talking about one more year of love making, or one more year of ‘safe’ sex?”

I kidded.

“You know what I mean,” Kristin replied, poking me in the ribs. “After my May lingerie set in New York I’d like to get pregnant.

That would give us our first child in February. She would be old enough to take camping by July.”

“She? How do you know it’s going to be a she when we haven’t even planted the seed yet?”

“I just know. But I’ll be just as happy if it’s a he.”

We agreed that the following May, while we were in New York for Kristin’s modeling appearance, we would stop using any

birth control techniques. Kristin would let her agent, Virginia, know our plans so she could put Kristin on hold while we began

our family. Then Kristin would return to modeling on a part time basis in between pregnancies.

In early August we drove into Yellowstone National Park, staying two nights at one of the campgrounds while we explored the

park. We both agreed there was much more to see in the park but for this year we were trying to stay away from crowds. We

couldn’t do that at Yellow-stone. Another time, we said.

We drove from there into Montana and found more secluded areas to camp and fish. By the tenth of the month we had

worked our way gradually west in the state until we reached Missoula. I then informed Kristin we were in the area where most

of the action in the book I’d published that spring had taken place.

“The town I called Davis is actually Hamilton, about an hour’s drive south of Missoula. I’d like to go there next and begin a

sequel to that story.”

“Let’s go there then,” Kristin replied.

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