Thursday around 6 am I'll go meet Tha Perfesser - Paul Pierce - and his wife Audrey - at the Valero station on FM-1488 at I-45 and we'll roll North to Alaska for the adventure of a lifetime.
I don't know how long we'll be gone - a month to six weeks I suspect. We'll take 9 or 10 days to get to Fairbanks. Audrey is flying back from Anchorage on June 22d. I'm running a 5.6 mile race that's part of the Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage on the 23d.
My web page has links for the route up and the current plan for the ride back, to follow my ride via my SPOT Satellite Tracker and to my Smugmug album for the ride.
This is a huge deal for me, a ride I've dreamed of for years. It's a lot safer journey than it used to be but still a big undertaking. It's 4,100 miles to Fairbanks from Tomball through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory; the Alaskan, Haines, Klondike, Cassiar and Yellowhead highways and Iceland Parkway; Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, Whitehorse, Tok, Haines, Skagway, Hyder, Prince George, Jasper, Lake Louise Banff - thoughts of these places and roads have excited me for years - and soon I'll see them.
My wife, Nancy, and I took a cruise from Vancouver BC to Whittier AK then too a train form Anchorage to Denali to Fairbanks in July 2009. At Skagway AK we took the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad to the Yukon Territory. While there I met a motorcyclists that were riding up from Skagway and a couple the had ridden up from the US. Those were the first of many US motorcyclists I'd meet on that trip. "Wow, I thought, "to RIDE to Alaska!"
And in two days and a wake up I'm going to do it.
This is a big deal for me, a grand adventure.
I'm prepared as I'll be. I know there will be some bumps along the way but I have faith in the power of what I call motorcycle angels - those complete strangers that always show up to help you out, or tell you about the road ahead, or to give you advice on sights to see.
