Day 10 - Fairbanks to Wiseman

I first heard the banging of a drawer. The sound of someone callously rummaging through bags. The lights were on outside of the room but I was not sure what time it was. I couldn't quite move and was not sure if I was awake or still dreaming, a feeling of helplessness covered me like a blanket. I wondered what it was that I was experiencing but before I knew it I had drifted back off and lost the specifics.

I checked the time in a cold sweat expecting to have overslept. Clearly I missed something but it was actually pretty early still. I may have been tired from the day before but somebody was in the room. I look at the pile of everything Tiffany and I own for the next couple weeks but it looks as I had left it last night. But I couldn't help but go through it to make sure. Were we robbed? Was I dreaming?

Day 9 - Anchorage to Fairbanks

The morning came and the alarms kept coming. They wouldn't stop. No matter how much we ignored them. We only had one free day and I had already gotten used to it, how that's possible I don't know. Fortunately our day was short compared to what we've been through, but I still wasn't looking forward to packing the bike up. Not yet.

We ended up getting a late start. In fact, it felt pretty awkward getting the bikes packed up in the morning. We had been at this already for a whole week and here I stood in front of the bike disorganized, wishing I was back in bed. It felt like Day 1, that seemingly random morning at home getting ready for a month long journey, and all of a sudden I had to relearn everything I knew about packing the bike. Not much had changed but things felt different amid all of the chaos.

Day 8 - Burn day in Anchorage AK

Eddie and I were exhausted from the nearly countless miles now behind us. The hotel room looked like the victim of an earthquake or a tornado, possibly both. Tiffany was still trying to work out how to pack and get the remaining things taken care of before we took off. I had a list of things I needed from our one week marathon run up to Alaska.

But above all, the laundry was at the top of the list.

Day 7 - Whitehorse YT to Anchorage AK

 
The alarm was set early... and early it came. It was still dark and I think a few of our roommates had crawled into bed just a few hours before. To keep the alarm (my cell phone) close by in order to turn it off quickly, I somehow had managed to fall asleep with it right next to my ear, so I was treated to an explosion of alarm tones and vibrations in my ear when it went off. I tried desperately to stay quiet but the silence was broken when I hit my head on the ceiling with a dull thud. There really wasn't any room between it and the bed and I begin to think of the night before our first day.

Day 6 - Liard River Hot Springs BC to Whitehorse YT

 
It was about 3am when I found myself staring up at the top of the tent. It was pitch black but I could just barely make out the seams above me. Apparently I had been staring up for some time but was only just then waking up. I do that all the time, my body wakes up before my mind does creating an awkward gap of vulnerable consciousness. It's typically harmless and I rarely wake up in random places, but today would be one of those days when I do. I know I'm on the road, but I couldn't quite say with certainty where I was. Not yet.

Day 5 - Grande Prairie AB to Liard River Hot Springs BC

 
The alarm went off too early, as they always seem to do, and having gotten so used to hotels by now I felt confused by my surroundings at first. I sat in bed listening for life outside the door. We had a short day to Liard River Hot Springs and I question why we had gotten up so early. 

Day 4 - Medicine Hat AB to Grande Prairie AB

We rolled out of Medicine Hat in good time for the morning. We were both a little sore from the riding so far and lack of a hot tub at all of our recent stops. So far we were 0 for 3. An unwelcome alarm had woken us up an hour earlier than expected, us being victims of a cell phone that didn't auto-update the time zone we were in. Thoughts of waking up early with it were quickly diminished, however the extra hour felt like nothing when the alarm came back.

Day 3 - Grand Forks ND to Medicine Hat AB

 
The alarms wake us up to a tough morning. The whole trip experience gets put on hold as I figure out how to get the hot water working in the shower. There was a fine line... if any line at all... getting the temperature where it needed to be to keep from being cooked. I ignore the feeling of defeat and head for the free breakfast with Eddie.

Day 2 - Ottawa IL to Grand Forks ND

We woke up and quickly got to work packing the bikes back up. This was our first morning on the road so it was a little awkward as expected. We took our time to ensure everything was good, and took the mental notes required for the many times we'll be doing it in the future.

Day 1 - Woodstock GA to Ottawa IL

The alarm went off way too early. I wasn't asleep when it went off, but not really awake either. My head still hurt from banging it on the rearset the night before. I feel around for the knot on my head, which has gotten worse. I rub it for a few minutes, still confused and unsure of my surroundings, expecting my head to feel better but only end up making it feel worse. I should have put ice on it, but I couldn't really tell if the headache I had was from bump or from just everything else I've been dealing with. It felt as if all the problems and stress had formulated into this physical knot so I wouldn't forget they are there.

Time to get serious

Had to get serious about the trip. Long hair had to go, did not want to deal with all that on the road.

Plans have been arranged

Plans have been arranged. Bags have been packed. Work has been set aside.
I haven't even left yet and I am already at the point where I hate looking at my bank account balance.
For some reason I keep thinking about the biggest pile of dead Amazon.com boxes I have stacked up in the foyer. 

Now we wait.

I've never worked so hard for a ride before. A little planning here and there for sure, but this has taken on a form of all its own, uncontrollable. All those rides before seem like day trips now. I've got to get this one right, though. One small misstep and we may be too far behind schedule. So we've only got one shot at this.

Just the way I like it. Or do I? The stress has been tough. I know once I get started on the ride things will smooth out, we just have to get to that point. The clock's ticking.

This is something we've got to take. My job has been a real drain for me, and I need the time off. I am privileged to have some company on this trip. Eddie will be heading up with me on his V-Strom650, and my awesome wife will be flying up to Anchorage to meet us there with a rented BMW F650GS. And then there is me... on my GSXR-600.

The Plan: One week to get to Anchorage, two weeks to explore Alaska, and two weeks to get back home. Seems easy enough! Lets go!

Fifty On Two: Alaska

It feels so long ago when I decided to ride all fifty states before I turned 30. There was no rhyme or reason for it, no emotional story anything of the sort. It just seemed like a good goal to have. I wasn't even sure if it would be possible. I just went with it.

But despite the memory of the origin being so hazy at this point, time has fled by... almost out of control up to now. The runaway train that has been this goal isn't stopping, and sometimes it feels as though I must jump on the train in motion, or be left behind. But how did I get here... and why is this train going so fast?

Tyler once told us that the things that you own, end up owning you. However, this also applies to ideas and thoughts as well. I hadn't thought about what this whole mess would cost me, in both time and money... and maybe even some stress too... but here we are. Once I hit my forty-ninth state, Alaska was then the big target. It's been all I could think about. My own goal has taken me hostage and at times it feels like I'm just along for the ride. Am I really the one in control here? Or has Alaska been my own Tyler Durden, doing things while I sleep?

It seems lately society has morphed into some reclusive hole, living vicariously through others. These scenes they see on their TV screens, computer monitors, and cell phone screens... do they really exist? Are they grand pictures and experiences... or just 1's and 0's and little flickers of light they think represents something magnificent? They see these pictures but don't experience them, they do not live them. These poor souls get their single serving of adventure wrapped up in a pretty bow but never realize they are just sitting on their couch, wasting their life. It seems like you have so much time to do everything you want, until that point you realize you have nothing left... and experienced nothing worth remembering.

In less then a week I will depart for Alaska, to finally meet the monster that is all the ways I wish I could be. To have the courage to just run with it. To be free in all the ways that I am not.

-Blake