Alaskan homesteader, big game guide, and old friend Les Cobb, a couple of his ranch hands, and I were wrangling a ramuda of eleven horses nearly 200 miles across the Alaskan wilderness to a moose hunting camp along the Yukon River. Nearly every day plagued us with drizzling rain, encounters with bears, and hordes of mosquitoes. One wet afternoon when the sun shone briefly, we built a fire on the banks of the Yukon and huddled around it to dry out. I lay down next to it in the sunshine to take a nap.
As I snoozed, the young hands, Bryan and Chet, thought it funny to erect a makeshift cross marking the site of my resting place. I slept on.
What Bryan and Chet didn’t realize was that I had taken “combat naps” under many unusual places and conditions. Donna Sue says I can literally sleep anywhere, anytime; she has clandestinely taken photos of me to prove it.
Some of my more unusual naps:
In the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel against the boll of an ancient olive tree;
In the boughs of a tree during an Army Special Forces mission;
With a team of sled dogs in the Arctic;
In the jungle next to El Camino de Los Muertos in Honduras during the Contra wars;
Next to a camel in Algeria, and in Egypt;
On top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa;
Marooned with my sailboat on a deserted island in the Caribbean;
During a rainstorm while canoeing the Everglades;
Isolated on a spit of land at midnight while kayaking the Inside Passage to Alaska with a 20-foot tide rolling in;
On an island in the Yukon River with a grizzly;
On China Beach in Vietnam…
So, when Bryan and Chet nudged me awake on the Yukon River and waited to see my expression when I noticed what they had done, I merely yawned broadly and winked. Any nap in time will do, anywhere, anytime.
Crushing the Collective: The Last Chance to Keep America Free and Self-Governing is available at most bookstores, WND.com, Amazon.com, and BarnesandNoble.com. My appearance on radio, YouTube and some TV programs are available for viewing on the Internet.
Chuck,
I’m willing to bet a dollar to a donut that in our mid-70’s, any naps anytime we can get them are most welcomed. Wishing you, Donna Sue, and all your loved ones a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! CHAPPY CHANUKAH and FELIZ NAVIDAD Y ANO NUEVO tambien, Amigo.
Bueno Bueno, my amigo. Y Feliz Navidad por tu, tambien. Venga a visitar pronto? chuck sasser
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I am sure you will have many more.
Morning, James. Thank you, my friend, and the same for you in spite of troubled times in the world. It all has to do with attitude, right? God bless. chuck sasser
Did the horses get along with the moose’s?
Actually, Robert. There’s an old Alaskan story of how a male moose fell in love (heat) with a mare mule. Now that’s a mating straight for disaster.See you tonight at Christmas party.
chuck sasser
Doesn’t surprise me!
Oh, but Sally. I’m gonna have to surprise you sometime. See you at Christmas Party tonight? chuck sasser
The Prince and the Pea, that’s our Chuck. Any lumpy mattress will do.
Hey, Jim. Probably more like a pea than a prince. You at the Christmas Party tonight, old friend. See you there? chuck sasser