METAMORPHOSIS continues Kim Francisco's adventures on the path to adulthood. In ALIBI MIKE describes the adventures he had his first summer as a seasonal employee for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Commercial Fisheries Division. This book picks up in the fall of 1973 when Kim and two friends who have also been laid off start out to drive the newly opened Pan American highway. Things go awry early in trip with a car accident. Kim's friends hitchhike down the highway, leaving the author in Steward, B.C., waiting for parts and repairs. To stay warm and dry, he becomes a barfly. To pass the time, he works as a salvage logger. Finds his morality tested by the wife of a friend. Finally, being rescued by a Canadian Mountie and his wife. The scene changes from the north woods to Des Moines, IA. Thanks to an airline ticket from home. Kim meets his soul mate, Marsha. He replaced El Coyote, his Toyota Land Cruiser, and drove across the country during the Gas Crisis of 1973. Arriving in California, he drops Marsha off at her brother's so she can return to Des Moines to finish her training as a Dental Assistant. With three friends, they set out to take Highway 101 to the AlCan highway. The gas crisis and snow blindness cause the quartet to suffer fear and cold. Marsha joins Kim in Fairbanks at Lathrop Hall, one of the University's dorms. Kim has to deal with the U of A's administrative hierarchy when try to blackmail him for his diploma. Leaving Marsha in Fairbanks, Kim returns to Emmonak to face some more challenges as a seasonal employee. His transfer back to Fairbanks allows Marsha and him to get married.
This is Mr. Francisco's third book, but the second memoir in the ALIBI MIKE series. His second book, FLYING FISHERIES BIOLOGIST, is a stand-alone story of his flying experiences in bush Alaska. It's not necessary to read ALIBI MIKE first before METAMORPHOSIS.
Kim is now seventy years old. His companion, best friend, and lover, Marsha, passed away in 2021. After twenty-one years, Kim is Iowa's longest-serving Commissioner of Natural Resources. He was not reappointed in 2021, so he is beginning retirement 2.0.