Sunday, May 13, 2018

13 May 1966: North to Alaska

On this day, in 1966, we started the trip north from southern California to Eagle River. Paul, Maureen, Kim, and I left my grandparents home in Ventura, making the trip in our maroon 1964 Rambler (a car I was later to take to college in 1974).

I didn't know it at the time, but I was to leave years of respiratory distress behind, and embark on a new way of thinking about the outdoors and about myself. Living in Alaska had a profound shaping effect on my life.

I haven't been back to Alaska as much as I would like, but certainly as often as life and other priorities allow. My last couple of trips back were work-related; one to Anderson and one to Shemya, both in the winter of 2015. I'm planning a ride to Alaska in 2020; that's a lot of fun to plan for.

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