Alaksa Road Trip (AKRT)
Day 1
"Go West"








You may not know this, but I am an avid “to do list” maker. It’s pretty much how I organized my chaotic self so I can semi-function on a normal day. I was feeling quite frustrated with myself that I haven’t “done much” lately, despite the multitude of things to do scrolled across scraps of paper floating around my studio. I need to do more, I tell myself. Not because it’s expected of me, but because its is the fiber from which I am woven. I need more yardage. I have done a lot, but I need to do more, I tell myself with a little grace.

So I am leaving today on another adventure. And a much needed one at that. For the next week and a half , my friend, Janel, and I will be road tripping across this great nation of ours, destination Kenai, Alaska, as we mover her back home to be with her family. Continuing in the spirit of this blog, we can’t just let my friend go by her name, so we have given her the alias of Artic Fox. She wants you to be sure and know that despite the “arctic surname” she, in fact, despises cold and prefers warmer climates. WHY? We ask, is she moving to AK….that’s one of the things we plan to discover on this journey. So, I invite you my friends, to come with us, as City Mouse and Artic Fox get in touch with our inner Jack Kerouac and hit the road. The Prius is packed. The itunes and blasting. The mittens and hats are on. Let the fun begin….

Reflecting on my love of “to do” lists, I have decided to make a “have done” list. Enjoy!
I have heard the sound of children’s laughter rise out of a dank orphanage in China. I have known the colors and sounds of Easter morning in Sorrento as the people pour out of the churches carrying boughs of remembrance and peace. I have seen a rainbow appear while sitting on a cliff in western Ireland as storms roll in over the Atlantic. I have felt the warmth of the sand between my toes on a beach in Perth in the middle of winter. I have seen the fog lift over the ancient mountain ruins in Peru, revealing a sight so sacred it gave me my breath back. I have slept peacefully in the depth of the Amazon jungle with nothing but a net and a sense of adventure between me and the deep black unknown. I have wished upon a tree in Hong Kong that made more things come true on the journey to it, than I tossed upon its branches. I have broken bread with a Quechan woman in her Amantani home, and balanced upon the Floating Islands of Uros with an old man whose hands made the boat that carried us. I have walked in awe amongst the Roman ruins of Christ’s time. I have been lost and found in Venice. I have talked politics over brunch in Munich, and climbed a mountain side in the Black Forrest in search of a goal. I have accidentally encountered Van Gogh in Vienna, had my soul haunted at a desolate concentration camp in the Austrian countryside, and watched the orange sun settle down on the streets of Dublin. So for I think I’m off to a good start. But I still need to do more, I tell myself.


The joy is in the journey.
City Mouse and Arctic Fox