Contemplating where I have been.

I am grateful to have a blog where I can write down my trip memories. For years I wrote three pages in a note book daily. It was my morning ritual, so I called it my morning pages. I stopped writing about two years ago. I felt I had written enough. But, now that tradition has transformed itself  into my travelogue. After my trip to India, I didn't write in my blog, I felt I had nothing to say. Now that I have had time to process the trip partially, I feel my observations of the trip can be deeper. Also, I want to write about the epic journey I took last summer to Alaska. Yes, I drove from Oklahoma to Anchorage Alaska. I did this while gasoline was five dollars a gallon in some towns! 

It is a bit weird to write and have total strangers read my thought... welcome total strangers! I guess at some level I am comfortable with this new medium. It's no different than people buying books that an author has written, after all they too are read by total strangers. I have always wanted to write stories, this way I get to fulfill my wish. I have had positive feedback for the blog, thanks to all those who have shared their thoughts with me.

The summer of 2008, in June I started off for Alaska. People always ask me how long it took to get there. I went to Alaska by way of Minnesota, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia. Family and friends live in those three cities. From Vancouver, it took five days of driving ten hours a day to get to Anchorage. It was an amazing journey. For hours my car was the only car on the road. No one in front of me, no one behind me. No one coming towards me, it was surreal. I enjoyed the solitude, alone with my thoughts. Sometimes I drove in silence and other times I had the music cranked up so high, even the bears came out of hibernation!

The Alaska hi-way is a challenging road, most of it is in good repair, but then there are portions of it that are in dire need of repair. There are frost heaves and the only way they are marked-- tiny red flags by the road side to warn you of a buckle in the road that would damage the underside of your car with tremendous force! So, I learnt to drive slowly anytime I saw the flags. With the sun high up in the sky until eleven at night, there was no danger of missing the red flags. There are no towns that far north, just a few motels on the side of the road along with a gas station. True frontier land! I enjoyed my trip and will make that trek again.