Welcome! Or....NORTH: to ALASKA!

Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog. I've gone back and forth in my mind since I first heard about blogging about whether or not I wanted a blog of my own. And now I've succumbed. It took an upcoming trip to Alaska and my desire to share the experience with my family and friends as it was happening to make this happen, but now that it has happened, I'm glad it did.

I am a member of many online communities. I participate in several forums, most notably Boatertalk (http://boatertalk.com) and I've played euchre online for years; but forums and message boards and instant message conversations create an awkward record of thoughts and inspirations and the life events that energize and traumatize us all. So now that I've carved out this space hopefully my records will become a bit more organized and meaningful for me in a way that I can reference them; and hopefully they will be entertaining enough that they will hold your interest as well.

At least I get to start off with a bang. I go whitewater rafting about 30 days a year and there are tons of stories that I can tell about experiences on the river. But I am going on vacation Sunday night and there aren't too many rivers running this time of year in the States, and regrettably, I don't have the time or the resources right now to go to Costa Rica or Chile for sensational rafting on the Pacuare or the Futaleufu. So I chose Frozen Alaska instead.

I've never been to Alaska. I've always wanted to go. And I am excited as hell! Hopefully that excitement will come out in my blogging, and hopefully as I learn about Alaska, you can learn something about it as well through my blog. If for nothing else, that alone will make this experience entirely worth the effort.

Thanks for reading!