In 1942, the west coast of North America was under threat after the attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the US government to build a military road from Dawson Creek, BC, to Delta Junction, AK. Renowned as a driving challenge and for its remote scenic beauty, the Alaska Highway opened to the public in 1948. It was the beginning of the golden age of the automobile. Silvertip, Swift River, Silver Dollar, Krak-R-Krik, Chickaloon and other quaint and quirky establishments sprang up along the highway, offering travellers coffee, gas, conversation and a place to spend the night. During the roadhouse heyday, owners and employees lived on the frontier and earned good wages. Some were looking for a life-long commitment and a place to raise a family, others relished the isolation. Aside from truckers, today most people travel the Alaska Highway in fuel-efficient cars and self-sufficient RVs—the demand for lodge services has diminished and the businesses struggle to survive. Since December 2014, Yukoners Gontard and Kelly have been visiting operating and abandoned lodges, recording the unique culture of the Alaska Highway before it disappears completely. The book includes the recollections of Gay Frocklage, whose parents, Doris and Bud Simpson, ran one of the oldest roadhouses on the highway, Mile 716 Rancheria Lodge, Yukon; and Bud and Pam Johnson, who met at the Mile 1318 Tok Lodge, Alaska, were married six months later and ran the lodge for three decades; as well as Ross Peck whose parents, Don and Alene Peck, operated Mile 200 Trutch Lodge, BC, as a highway lodge and hunting outfitting base from 1950-1963. Featuring both archival and contemporary photographs, Beyond Mile Zero explores the evolution of Alaska Highway culture and will be of interest to locals and travellers alike.

"Mile zero" marks the location of Key West -- the island that defines the end of the American road, the cultural junction where Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Afro worlds collide. On this island, with its cruel legacy of slave trade and Latin revolution, and its turbulent present of marijuana millionaires, threadbare illegal immigrants, and hard-luck treasure hunters, lives St. Cloud, an American expatriated in his own country, a fugitive from the unresolved anguish of his generation. Chronicling St. Cloud's dangerous reawakening, Mile Zero illuminates the inward and outward tumult of our time in a huge, startling, and profoundly felt novel.

Fired from a job he hated at a company he loved, videogame designer Paul Reynolds is drowning his sorrows in late-morning margaritas when he meets an alluring, pink-haired conwoman named Chloe. With her gang of technopirate friends, Chloe helps Paul not only take revenge on his former employers, but also extort a small fortune from them in the process. What more could a recently unemployed, over-worked videogame designer in Silicon Valley ask for? In return for Chloe’s help, Paul agrees to create counterfeit comic books for one of her crew’s criminal schemes. In the process he falls in for their fun loving, drug fueled “off the grid” lifestyle almost as fast as he falls head over heels for Chloe. Wary of the Crew’s darker side, but eager to impress both the girl and the gang, Paul uses his game design expertise to invent a masterful con of his own. If all goes according to plan, it will be one for the ages. But can he trust any of them, or is he the one who’s really being conned? Inspired by author Rick Dakan’s own eventful experiences in the videogame and comic book industries, Geek Mafia, satisfies the hunger in all of us to buck the system, take revenge on corporate America, and live a life of excitement and adventure.

Beyond The Bridges takes the reader through all aspects of river life. From canoes to steamboats, from river history to river lore. It is both a great reference book for those who wish to do their own river boating and has entertaining chapters about the author's own mishaps and adventures. Jerry Hay began is river adventures on the Wabash River in Indiana and has since traveled and made river maps on many rivers by canoe, kayak, steamboats, powerboats and even towboats. Millions of people cross bridges each day with no idea of the adventure, power, and magic that a river offers. After reading this book, one will look at the rivers differently while glancing over the guard rail at the waterways below. He or she will know what it is really like.......Beyond The Bridges. Available to download to your device as an ebook.

A Century in the North Peace recounts the life and times of an ordinary but remarkable woman, Anne Callison. Together with her husband John Callison, she lived a 20th century of incredible change in the North Peace River District of British Columbia, Canada. Her tale?from immigration, remote farming, traplines, and trading to the coming of the Alaska Highway and running motels, volunteering and giving back to the community?is told against the backdrop of the history of the region and its peoples, both settler and Indigenous. Alive to history, the book also sets eyes on the future and the challenges to come.