Alaskan Dreams

Andy Karella musters out of the Marine Corps after WWII, and marries Betty, his college sweetheart. [TMM1] As they take off across America on a working honeymoon, Andy and Betty are still driven by dreams of bigger, wilder adventures.

Making a spontaneous decision, the newlyweds-along with Andy's brother Charlie and best friend, Chauncey-begin a 3,500 mile journey to the remote US Frontier Territory of Alaska in the spring of 1949. Their lives depend on what they carry with them in a 12-year-old Pontiac pulling a two-wheeled cart.

A trip thought to take weeks becomes months of hardship. They survive freezing temperatures, ice and snow, sucking mud, rocks and ruts, and clouds of biting insects as they discover the road is nothing but a primitive military trail. Only demilitarized since the fall of 1948, it leads them through the most isolated and inhospitable regions of the North American continent, and they desperately hope it will get them to the frontier gold-mining town of Fairbanks.

In the land of the midnight sun, they reach the point of no return. Betty's secret is out. A baby is coming soon, there's no money, and a nine-month winter closes in on them. Anxiously, they wonder is it possible to build a life in such a far-flung Territory? Do they have the courage and fortitude their immigrant ancestors possessed to live a life of unforgettable adventures in Alaska?

Find out in Alaskan Dreams, book 3 in A Family Born in the Land of Promise Saga.