South to Alaska: From the Heartland of America to the Heart of a Dream - Softcover

Nancy Owens Barnes

3.95

106 ratings by Goodreads

9781930076068: South to Alaska: From the Heartland of America to the Heart of a Dream

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930076061 ISBN 13: 9781930076068

Publisher: New Leaf Books, 2007

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Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, ten-year-old Melvin Owens dreams of living in Alaska. More than forty years later, to the astonishment of neighbors and friends, he single-handedly constructs the 47-foot Red Dog in his Arkansas backyard. After launching the boat in 1971, Melvin cruises along the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico where, in 1973, he begins an amazing journey along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, then into the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Melvin has never been south of the United States border and has never even been on a boat in the open ocean. Thwarted by mechanical problems, nature's fury, illness, thievery and loneliness, Melvin fears a deadly end before reaching the place of his dreams and returning to the woman he loves. A true story of courage and endurance, South to Alaska chronicles Melvin's perilous 10,000-mile solitary journey through a watery world he knows little about, to a world he cannot forget.

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Book Description:

What is it about the indomitability of the human spirit that propels some in pursuit of their dreams despite all odds? I don't have a ready answer to that question but I do know that upon reading South to Alaska...I was touched deeply and moved by the spirit of one such man; and by his daughter's telling of his story.

From the Inside Flap:

Born in the dusty heart of Oklahoma in 1916, ten-year-old Melvin Owens dreams of living in Alaska. More than forty years later, to the astonishment of neighbors and friends, he single-handedly constructs the 47-foot "Red Dog" in his Arkansas backyard. After launching the boat on the Arkansas River in 1971, Melvin cruises along the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico where, in 1973, he begins an amazing solitary journey along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal, then into the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Melvin has never been south of the United States border and has never been on a boat in the open ocean. Thwarted by mechanical problems, nature's fury, illness, thievery and loneliness, Melvin fears a deadly end before reaching the place of his dreams and returning to the woman he loves.A true story of courage and endurance, "South to Alaska" chronicles Melvin's perilous solo 10,000-mile journey through a watery world he knows little about, to a world he cannot forget.

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