his character and personality. Wyatt would often go on long walks to get away from her. Each may have engaged in extramarital affairs. Josephine could be controlling. Grace Spolidora was a teenager during the Earp's many visits to her family's home near Needles, California and sometimes went to San Diego with them. She attributed the highly exaggerated stories about Wyatt Earp to Josephine. Sadie "would always interfere whenever Wyatt would talk with Stuart Lake. She always interfered! She wanted him to look like a church-going saint and blow things up. Wyatt didn't want that at all!" Among the facts Josephine wanted scrubbed from Earp's history, she persuaded biographers Flood, Lake and Burns to write that Earp was a non-drinker. Charlie Welsh, Grace Spolidora's father, was a good friend of Earp's. He was known to disappear for days at a time "to see property", the family euphemism for a drinking binge, and Earp was his regular partner. Director John Ford said that whenever Josephine left town for religious conventions, Earp would come into town, play poker, and get drunk with the cowboy actors. Nevada to Alaska to Nevada On August 5, 1897, Earp and Josie once again joined in a mining boom and left Yuma, Arizona for San Francisco. They planned to head for Alaska to join in the Alaska Gold Rush, but their departure was delayed for three weeks when Wyatt fell while getting off Market Street streetcar and bruised his hip. Josephine got pregnant at the same time, and she thought she could persuade Earp from heading to Alaska. He was in agreement, but Josephine, who was 37, miscarried soon after. They boarded the steamship Rosalie for Nome, Alaska on September 21. When they got to Wrangell, the season was already late, and they chose to winter in Rampart. They rented a cabin from Rex Beach for $100 a month and spent the winter of 1898–1899 there. He managed a small store during the spring of 1899 in St. Michael on the Norton Sound, a major gateway to the Alaskan interior via the Yukon River. In the spring they decided the gold rush in Dawson was drawing to an end and headed for Nome instead. Earp and partner Charles E. Hoxie built the Dexter Saloon, the largest in Nome. Josephine gambled so recklessly that Wyatt cut her off and asked other gambling houses to do the same. She also