Alexis and the Lake Tahoe Tumult - Erica Rodgers [20]
Alexis looked out the window and felt like she had landed on another planet.
“I hope we’re not stuck in the hotel today!” squealed Bailey from behind her.
“Me, too,” said Alexis.
“One thing’s for sure,” she continued, layering on her thick socks and snow boots. “Even if we can get to the reserve, there’s no way we’ll be able to examine the site near the bear cave. Any evidence will be covered up.”
Alexis and Bailey weren’t too hopeful as they rode the elevator down to the lobby. They were surprised to see that it was business as usual outside. Cars and buses chugged by the hotel. Bundled-up tourists trudged into the corner coffee shop. The only things out of place were the huge piles of snow on the sides of the street. Every few minutes a huge snowplow roared its way through. It pushed the newly fallen snow out of the street, adding to the piles.
As the girls waited to see if the bus would come, they didn’t see any sign of Angelo. The bus picked them up as usual, though now there were metal chains clacking on all of its four wheels. Lisa picked them up in the jeep. A small plow was sticking out of its front bumper. It took much longer than usual to traverse the road to the reserve office. Every once in a while, Lisa had to let the plow down to push through the snowdrifts.
“You’re really good at that,” said Bailey from the backseat.
“Thanks,” said Lisa. “Thankfully this only happens a few times a year. I don’t know what we’d do if we had to deal with it all the time!”
“I even saw a school bus on our way here,” said Alexis. “My cousin in Tennessee gets out of school if they think it’s going to snow! Wait until I tell her that kids in Tahoe go in a blizzard!”
“Yeah,” laughed Lisa. “It takes a lot to get a snow day here.”
By the time they were inside the office, warming themselves by the fire, Jake and Karen were already doing their rounds with the animals.
“Hey, Lisa?” Alexis said. “We have a lot of video of the animals. Do you think we could interview you about the reserve and your parents?”
“Sure!” said Lisa. “I finished a lot of my work early this morning. Besides, if you two win, I’ll be on TV! And I’m sure you’ll win. You just have to! People will love this.”
Alexis spent the next hour behind the camera filming as Bailey asked Lisa question after question. They learned everything they could about the reserve. Lisa’s grandparents had started it with their life savings, and the Ingles had worked continually to expand it since then. It was the only reserve of its kind in California or Nevada—the only option for the animals that animal control and the humane society couldn’t deal with.
The Ingleses felt their setup was still too small. Just last month they had had to turn away a wolf that someone had tried to keep as a pet. They just didn’t have the space. The wolf had gone to a sanctuary near Olympia in Washington State, but he had been lucky—most animals Karen and Jake couldn’t keep had nowhere else to go. If a zoo couldn’t take them, they had to be released or put to sleep.
After the interview, Lisa had to leave. The local high school was having a college fair, and she was going to help answer questions about her university. Before she left, Alexis caught her at the door.
“Lisa?” she called into the snow. “Do you think we could use the phone for a bunch of local calls? We were going to follow up on a lead.”
“Sure! Mom and Dad will be busy until lunch anyway.”
Alexis got out her pink notebook and placed it next to the phone while Bailey scrounged around the office looking for the phone book. There was a whole page full of numbers for snowmobile rentals, so the girls decided to go in alphabetical order.
By the time Alexis had called half the rental places, she still hadn’t written anything down. Bailey was getting bored. She started making origami out of a pile of yellow sticky notes lying on the desk.
Finally, on about the twentieth call, they got a break. Alexis learned that the snowmobile they were looking for was