This summer my wife and I decided to drive to Alaska from Phoenix. We had just finished remodeling a house and deserved a great vacation. So we packed up the Honda and headed to the California coast, then Oregon, Washington, Canada, and finally arrived in Alaska 8 days later. When I tell people we drove there the typical response is, “you did what? That’s crazy!” For some reason most people think what we did was insane, but it was one of the best vacations of my life! It was only a 4000 mile drive up there. With 2 drivers, it was a piece of cake. And the scenery was gorgeous! We did a lot of camping, and stayed in an occasional hotel.

But I tell you, this was a true test of our relationship. Being stuck together like glue for that long will test any relationship. But we only had a few disagreements on our travels. And we were gone for 70 days. Most people said “you are really lucky to be able to take that much time off.” Well, luck or not, we just decided we deserved it and did it. So many people have dreams, and put everybody and everything else before it. We are on this earth for a limited time, why not live out our dreams before it’s too late? My wife and I do that now and let me tell you, life is good. And when we accomplish one of our dreams, others are sometimes inspired. And others are sometimes envious.

Our destination in Alaska was Raven Acres in Palmer. Our buddy, James T. Kirk, has 80 acres up there with his family. His nutty Uncle Bill was building a log cabin and could use some help. So we worked on the cabin for some of the time up there which was really fun. What could be more fun than building a real log cabin up in the wilderness of Alaska, right? Some highlights of the trip include:

• Gold Bluff’s Beach in northern California was absolutely breathtaking. Camping on the beach with the Redwood Forest right behind you.
• Visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Washington.
• The drive up the coast in the fog.
• Hitting about 7 different animals with the car.
• My wife getting a ticket in California and blaming it on me.
• Catching salmon on the Kenai, and Halibut in the Ocean.
• Building the cabin.
• Taking a float in anchorage at Alaska Float Tank.
• Seeing 7 bears, mostly in Stewart-Hyder Alaska.
• The drive through Canada was absolutely amazing! 7000 foot mountains going straight up, and 1000s of miles of crystal clear blue rivers and stream.  And the people there were so nice! And they all puncuated their sentences with “ehhhh.”
• Catching a 22″ trout on the Kenai and releasing it because it was “too big.”
• Bringing back 60 pounds of Salmon, Halibut, and King Crab!
• Talking with my wife for hours on end and really improving our relationship.
• Listening to hours of motivational tapes on the drive.
• Listening to the Davinci Code audiobook.
• Accomplishing an amazing dream and helping my friend with his.
• Stealing the fishing spot in the Yukon from a bald eagle and catching a bunch of huge spawing trout.
• Only saw 3 or 4 cops during the 3500 miles of driving through Canada.
• The bear viewing area in Stewart Hyder.
• Watching eagles pull fish out of the Kenai.

Overall we drove 12,000 miles on our trip. Our little Honda kicked some serious butt on the drive! We overloaded it with camping gear and it handled the 100s of miles of dirtroads in the Yukon with no problem.

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