50 days

It seems like such a long amount of time, but it looms to closely for me at times.

Each trip/adventure I take seems to get more and more complicated in the planning. gone are my days of my jansport backpack crammed full and my Walkman ready to set off for anywhere. I miss those days and a simpler mindset out of bed hair up, t-shirt and jeans on (any will do everyhting goes with everything), wallet in back pocket, gym shoes on ,and hit the road. Somewhere I lost my tomboy and now have makeup and jewelry...other shoes....not t-shirt and jeans outfits (eek outfits).....cell phone....

It's all so complicated now...but still fun and exciting.

So many little details like making sure the house is clean before leaving, my mother dilled this into me saying that you don't want to come how to a mess. having someone to collect mail and news papers, a way to an from the airport, and everything else. A lot of which i didn't have to worry about on previous trips.

Packing has even become a challenge, needing to pack as lightly as possible to avoid extra charges at the airport. Also knowing you are likely to be bringing back more stuff then you left with. Alaska is not the ends of the Earth so to speak, I can buy things there but somethings you'd rather just know you have and you have the kind you like.

Debates start over what we need to bring. We only need one camera....do you really need that big one with all the extra stuff......a video camera would be nice but who is going to run it. We should all have backpacks and proper layers, but suddenly this old thing will work.

handy guides you've collected pile up, needing to be sorted through so the important information is with you on the trip. Like where the public restrooms are and which have running water.