Thirty-eight Miles from the Nearest Road: the Early Years

Thirty-Eight Miles from the Nearest Road is a story of the trials and tribulations encountered by a young couple during their early years. Bob Johnson is the grandson of hearty immigrants who all migrated to the United States from Finland over 100 years ago. They were all too familiar with the harsh elements of winter and the yoke of Soviet oppression. This background prepared Bob for a life of hard work, shortages, and self-dependence in the wilds of Canada and the dangers of commercial fishing off the coast of Florida. Bob's greatest obstacles and triumphs were the same; he challenged, daily, the world of nature, trying to get it to produce abundantly. These engagements were not always productive, joyful, or even peaceful but they were honest and basic, teaching a person the values of sweat, labor and personal responsibility: traits, which are lacking in our modern society. Bob did not choose an easy route to success but, rather, chose endeavors that require such character-building attributes as knowledge, imagination, adjudication, precision and persistence. The hardships encountered, the memories recorded in this book are expressions of joy, love, and fulfillment. Bob is very entertaining; some of the stories he tells will inspire the reader to shed tears of laughter.
--From the Foreword by Melvin E. Weaver