Waltz With Me, Alaska [Paperback]

Donna Blasor-Bernhardt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2004

Leaving civilization for Alaskan wilderness, a young family fails to complete their log cabin before winter and struggles to survive in a MASH army tent. While conquering impending starvation, injury and sickness in minus 70° weather, the family experiences love, humor and insight into themselves, their lives and the land they love.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Waltz With Me, Alaska is the compelling true story of Dick and Donna Bernhardt who leave their Anchorage home and build a log cabin in the Alaskan wilderness to raise their family. Unable to complete the cabin before winter, a thirteen month struggle to survive in an old army tent with no conveniences and no neighbors ensues. Temperatures drop to 70 below zero. Every day is perilous, but peril and hardship are great teachers. The family works, loves, laughs and cries together while surviving the winter, completing their log cabin and living happily ever after.

About the Author

Donna lived the story of the tent outside of Tok, Alaska, in 1977. She would like to see her screenplay, which is based upon this book and has won two awards, made into a movie. There were around 250 people in and around Tok then. She still lives there in the log cabin she and her husband built. Donna has built three other cabins around her house and rents them in the summer as a Bed & Breakfast. There are approximately 1500 people live in Tok now. Both of her children have grown up and have families of their own. She has self-published five books of poetry, 2 short historical books, 2 recipe books, and a children's book. Donna has narrated an audio tape of her poetry, performed and recorded 2 non-fiction audio tapes/CD's, and 2 full-length non-fiction manuscripts have been optioned once, but not yet made, as movies. One tape/CD is the story of her coming to Alaska with her parents over the Alaska Highway when it was newly opened in December/January of 1950-51. The other is a tape about the Gettysburg battle. She's been in countless newspapers and magazines, from the Anchorage Daily News to the Seattle Times and the Dallas Morning News. She is Tok's and the Alaska Highway's poet laureate. Donna enjoys writing, oil painting, her children and grandchildren, living in her log cabin., and just being an Alaskan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: JADA Press (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974750115
• ISBN-13: 978-0974750118
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pioneer family of the North, May 27, 2004

By 

katherine Mattingly (Fairbanks, Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waltz With Me, Alaska (Paperback)

This story will leave you wondering why you ever complained about anything in the first place!!!Donna a true pioneer and inspiration of the North will make you cry when she cries,and laugh when she laughs. A story about a couragious family with enough love and strength to accomplish anything!! A love and survival story of how a family survived a cruel winter in Bush Alaska building their dreams and their home in the sometimes -69 degrees below zero. You can do anything when you put your mind and heart into it!!! Thankyou for such a GREAT read!! Hope to see this story in lights!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Woman, May 13, 2004

By 

Trena M (Hage) Hewitt (Port Orchard, Wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waltz With Me, Alaska (Paperback)

Lady Alaska, you are one incredible woman to endure it all in the name of pursuit of your dreams, to hold your family together, to see the injuries to your loved ones and get them through with only meager facilities. It was a story that painted a real picture. I have been there, as you know dearest high school classmate, to see the beautiful dancing lights at night, to see the beauty of winter, to drive the roads heaved from frost, and to feel the strong pull Alaska has on your heart forever. As we did in our youth, your children also did....had a unique experience that few will ever witness. Your written words made me laugh when you laughed, cry when you cried, felt pain when you were injured, and mourn when you lost your "Grizz"--the love of your life and your soulmate. I am so glad I bought this book and am so appreciative you shared your life with us readers. I hope to see this as a movie.....it certainly is deserving.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We've All Dreamed of Running Away, April 23, 2004

By 

Jerry Howell (Marbury, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waltz With Me, Alaska (Paperback)

On any given Monday morning it crosses the minds of millions of Americans to just "tell the boss to keep his job, go home and sell everything absolutely unessential...then take the money and strike out for the adventure of a lifetime". That's exactly what Dick, Donna and their two children did...into the cold of interior Alaska. "Waltz With Me Alaska" is the story of their love for each other and their love for the most beautiful and unforgiving land God has created. It's also the story of struggles, heartbreak and the triumph of watching your dreams come true.
The story centers around their search for land and then their struggle to get a cabin constructed before winter began. They didn't make it. I sat in my home, 80 degrees outside, and felt like I was freezing to death with them (...)as the temperatures plumeted to 60, 70 and 80 below zero in Tok. Alaska. Food was running out, it looked like they might starve. Is this the 1800's? No, it's the 1970's!!!
"Waltz With Me Alaska" is a story of love, determination, good luck, bad luck and what it's REALLY like to leave the warm confines of our mundane lives....and strike out for the unknown to build a life and a dream.
I encourage you to read the book. Even if you decide to continue getting up on Monday morning and stare at the boss's smiling face, you'll know what it's like to break free, find your own corner of the world and then build a new life one log at a time.