Ryan's Journal

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?" — David Mitchell

Palo Alto, California

Posted at 11:30 pm, July 30th, 2002

I woke up late this morning, ran a few errands, then ate a huge sub in my living room while watching the History Channel at lunch time. Retired life is rough. Anyhow, the departure date for Alaska feels like it’s going to be next Tuesday. By that point the car should be in good shape, the stuff I’ve ordered should all be here, and I ought to be antsy enough that another day in Palo Alto will just about drive me crazy — California is a great place, but Alaska in the Fall, well, that would be a tough one to beat.

I was reading through the Milepost (the guide to roads in British Columbia / Yukon Territories / Alaska) tonight looking for routes, but instead of figuring out what roads I’ll take I spent most of the time flipping through the pages looking at photos of the mountains, the bears, the caribou — how have I gone this long without doing a trip like this?!? The decision to quit definitely doesn’t seem like such a bad idea today.

Palo Alto, California

Posted at 12:00 am, July 24th, 2002

So the plan is to keep a log of the goings on for the next couple of months. I’ve got no clue who might be interested in such a thing, but for those that are, thanks for taking the time to share in my little adventure.

At this point the enormity (or lack thereof) of what I’m doing is still hitting me. The economy sucks, my job was actually a pretty good one, but instead of maintaining the status quo I’m hopping in the Subaru and taking off into the wild unknown. Whether I’m stupid, brilliant, daring, or idiotic I don’t know, but hope to find out…