July was spent catching up with
siblings, nieces, and nephews at two family reunions over the fourth of July
weekend. Carmen, Dakota, and Toby flew to Bismarck to join us, plus helped us
take care of our tow vehicle by driving it to California as we took off with our
RV (with bikes in tow) for our Great Alaskan Road Trip. Here we are in Dawson
Creek, which is the official beginning of the Alcan Highway.
Maureen flew in from Mexico to
join in the fun at the Ressler Family Reunion. Here she is with
Glorine and Marlene at the grave site of their Mom and Dad.
The family reunion was hosted by
Koreen (in the blue top) in her massive three car garage. Ken and Vickie flew in
from St Louis and Tammy drove up from Rapid City.
Glorine keynoted the Ressler
Family Trivia, which is always a hit as family members search for answers to
questions regarding immigration from Russia to fun facts about family
members.
What started with 13 siblings in the
Joe and Katie Ressler family is now down to six. Pictured here are Willie, Ray,
Marlene, Glorine, and Maureen. Sister Sally from Shreveport couldn't make
it,
Family members as far away as
Mexico, Florida, Missouri, and Colorado made the trip to honor family
memories and catch up.
Glorine updated the Family Tree
consisting of all the descendants of Joseph Ressler and Catherine Volk. Sally
has the largest family.
Glorine also did some research on
Joe and Katie's ancestors, who immigrated from Russia in the late 1800s and
early 1900s. Prior to living in Russia, all their ancestors came from
Germany.
This dilapidated barn is all that is
left of the farm that Larry's parents (Matt & Rose) built on Rose's parents
homestead west of Mandan. They too, were Germans who immigrated from
Russia
The reunion started with a Mass at
St. Vincent's Catholic Church near the family's homestead. This picture was
taken at the cemetery where both sets of grandparents and other relatives
are buried.
The Barnhardt Family Reunion was held
at Sertoma Park in Bismarck. Here, Larry and twin sister, Lorraine are posing by
the poster. They are both 75 years old and the babies of the family.
The Barnhardt family consisted of
seven siblings Lillian, Peter (deceased) wife Gloria, Jacob, Claudia
(who couldn't make it) daughter Lynne, Bob (deceased) wife Francie and
Lorraine and Larry.
The festivities included a meal,
Barnhardt Bingo and trivia, and wine and beer made by family members. Lil's
daughter Lori and husband Jim bottled wine with the Barnhardt Family logo on
them.
Along with families from North
Dakota, family members came from 15 states to attend this year's reunion.
Larry updated the Family Tree
consisting of 90 direct descendants of Matt Barnhardt and Rose Schmidt.
Robert has the largest family.
Larry did some additional research
on the Barnhardt and Schmidt ancestors. Like Glorine's family, they were
from Germany who immigrated to Russia, prior to moving to America.
Carmen, Dakota, and Toby joined us
for the Fourth of July fireworks display at the North Dakota Capital Building.
The next day they headed for California while we headed north to Alaska.
As we crossed the border into
Canada, we felt at home. It was flat and consisted of small towns,
lots of farms, some with oil derricks. What was new were the fields of
Canola, which Canada is the largest producer.
Our first stop was to visit Ajijic
friends who live in Regina. Jim and Margo hosted dinner and provided a
space to dry dock our RV. Brian and Marilyn gave us COVID test kits (we were
negative) after two reunions.
We got some Canada currency in
Bismarck and one merchant was surprised to see a one-dollar bill.
Canada mints Loonies (one dollar) and Toonie (two-dollar) coins, which replaced
the paper currency.
We spent two nights in Dawson Creek,
where they were hosting their annual Mile Zero Cruiser Show. Over one hundred
cars like this 57 Chevy, came from throughout Canada to show off their old
classics.
Dawson Creek has this awesome
pioneer village honoring those who settled here in the late 1800s.
This one-room schoolhouse hit home
for Larry, who attended one for eight years.
The display on the Alcan Highway
was enlightening. It was built by the US military to create a land
route to Alaska to construct military bases to thwart Japanese expansion
during World War II.
While no longer used, this bridge
stands as a testament to the work done by the Corp of Engineers who undertook
the most expensive construction project during WWII. It is one of 133 major
bridges on the Alcan Highway.
Starting in Dawson Creek, B.C.,
the highway stretches 1,422 mile to Delta Junction, AK. In addition to the
bridges, the road has 8,000 culverts. It took over 10,000 workers, who
completed the road in nine month.
Each day, we took a break from
driving, by either biking or hiking. Here we are walking on a nature trail in
Fort Nelson, British Columbia. We dried docked in an IGA parking lot that
night.
The
road was officially turned over from the US to Canada after the war in 1946,
who now has the task of maintaining it. Over 100,000 tourist use this
road each year.
Between Fort Nelson and Lake Watson, we crossed the Rocky Mountains, with
beautiful forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains galore.
The
road was much better than we had expected, and the views were stunning.
Every turn, brought a new vista we
had to capture with pictures.
We saw a moose cow, a black bear
and cub, and this herd of bison along the route.
We stopped to take this photo of us
entering the Yukon Territory, our first time this far north.
In Lake Watson, we were amazed at
the Signpost Forest. It was started by a homesick soldier from Danville,
IL, who posted the first sign. Other soldiers followed his lead,
along with thousands of tourists who have passed this route over the past 80
years.
We didn't have a sign to leave, so
instead we used these discarded piece of construction equipment and inscribed
our mark in the Signpost Forest.
We toured the Northern Lights
Space and Science Center in Lake Watson which displayed this
state-of-the-art panoramic video and surround sound system highlighting this
awesome phenomena.
The longest bridge along the Alcan
Highway is this 1,917-foot bridge that spans the Teslin Lake, next to the
village of Teslin, Yukon. It was rebuilt and opened in the spring of 1956.
The village of Teslin has the
largest Native population in Yukon. At the Teslin Heritage Center,
Larry watched a meeting between the Council of Elders and the Council of
Justice, dealing mostly with poachers and drugs.
Meanwhile, Glorine was learning how
to do decorative beading that would go on a jacket, using a two-needle
beading technique. We also visited a medicine doctor who had all sorts of
home-made concoctions.
Onto Whitehorse, Yukon, where we
posed for this picture along a narrow stretch of the Yukon River. We pulled
out our rain gear, which was the first of many times we would use it.
The Yukon River is the third longest
river in North America, running 1,982 miles starting in northern British
Columbia, across the Yukon Territory and Alaska, dumping into the Bering Sea.
Almost there! The trip from
North Dakota to Alaska took seven days, averaging about 350 miles per day
(mas o menos), a total of 2,450 miles. It was the first leg of an eight-week
vacation into an area of the world we have not yet seen.
The signpost welcoming us to Alaska
was a sight for sore eyes and butts. Another 80 miles got us to Tok where we
spend a couple days finalizing our Alaskan adventure. We divided our trip
into six destinations that are highlighted below. Click to view each
destination.
