Flower Friday

     This is a wild rose of some sort at the Lakeview Campground east of Tok.  This is where we started our summer road trip and our first night camping, both of the trip and ever camping together.  A small campground of only 12 spots and that night only three spots were used.  We heard a crane sounding and several loons calling most of the night.  The campsite we chose was right next to the lake.  Was a great start to our 11,300 mile, 56 day road trip.  We travelled the Alaska Highway to the Cassier Highway, through Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Duluth, across the Mackinac Straits to Alden, MI and family for a couple of weeks.  Then continued on to through Michigan and crossing at Port Huron to Canada to Buffalo, NY to Montrose, PA and more family for a bit.  Left and travelled up through Toronto and around Lakes Huron and Superior, through Winnipeg, Manitoba and then headed towards Edmonton, Alberta.  Caught the Alaska Highway where it officially begins in Dawson City and back through Yukon and into Canada.  It was a fantastic adventure.

Lupine

Canola Fields in Manitoba

Dryas

Throw Back Thursday

John Sowle

     This is my Great Grandpa John Sowle.  I can't trace my family history any further back with him as he came to Ithaca, Michigan on an Orphan Train from New York City.  That is all that he knew and when he reached St. Johns, Michigan, a farm family plucked him off the train.  In his early teens he ran away from the Sowle farm as he was basically an unpaid laborer more than an adopted son.  For a while he worked in a livery stable and slept in one of the horse stalls, but that ended abruptly.  The undertaking had a shop above and one night a body fell down the oat shoot into the stable below.  He left.

Sowle Farmstead

     He eventually made it to Ithaca and set up in farming and married Viola and they had my Great Aunt Mable.  Viola  died young and he then married Pearl and my Grandpa Leland Sowle was born.