1,779 miles down…

…3,000-3,600 to go.

Yeah, that many.

I ended up staying in the Midwest a bit longer than expected, to help my friends out with their kiddies and earn a few extra bucks. It feels good to help them out and maybe pay back one of the hundreds of things they’ve done for me. The few bucks don’t hurt either considering I’ll be out of loot on 2 weeks. From here I blast through Canada as fast as I can. This could take 4 days if I drive like an absolute madwoman or about a week if I manage to go at half super-psycho speed. The tires and oil are re-checked, I have piles of maps and books, and I’m looking forward to the look on the border patrol face when I say: “Hello sir! Just driving from the east coast on through to Alaska!”

I’ve learned that Verizon service is .69 a minute so there will be no chatty chat time in my next week or so via phone. $1,000 cell phone bills don’t exactly fit into my budget. Turns out my broadband card is a little more pricey over the border too which is a bummer. Unless I find a random internet cafe’/coffee shop when there aren’t even gas stations for hundreds of miles through some spots, I’ll be missing from here a bit. I’ll do my best to post what I can from 8/4-8/11. It’ll be a miracle if I get a shower during that time period so we shall see! (No, hotels don’t fit in the budget either. I like to be clean and all, but I once went 8 days without a shower when traveling and lived through it so I’ll be fine.)

There are 12 days until my birthday which I am so going to be in Alaska to ring in. 15 days until the anniversary. I’ve got a few thoughts on how I’ll spend that day, but undecided at the moment. I’ll be posting photos of the “Welcome to Alaska” sign here sooner than later. Please be patient if my posts are spotty or sporadic. (although a week without a shower and very little sleep and you probably won’t want to hear from me- I could get very cranky:) Thank you for following me this far. It’s been an amazing ride already and only going to get more interesting. If this ends up being nothing more than a conversation around a dinner table someday 40 years down the road with one of you telling the story:

“Remember that summer Diane was determined to make it to Alaska and she didn’t realize she hadn’t calculate that she’d have to have enough $ to actually get there and back to somewhere? She got stuck in that job gutting fish for a month after she had to hitch hike to make it there in the first place because her car caught on fire halfway through Canada after her tires all blew out? Remember that moose had run into her car too because she left chocolate on the front seat? Oh my gosh and that was after the border patrol had strip searched her because they thought she was nuts or a drug smuggler?!” (then lots and lots of laughter and teasing would follow…)

-It’d be Ok with me and all worth it. (Not to mention very funny.)

In doing some research I found that female life expectancy in the U.S according to different resources was between 78-82. I’ll take 80 for an average for now. That means I’m “expected” to live for 29,200. This is only if I am way lucky. As of today I’ve lived 11,668. That means I likely have 17,532 or less days left to try to learn all I can, make a positive mark on the planet, create good stories, and share as much love and laughter with my favorite people as possible. The days continue to fly too fast so I figure I’m just trying to be conscious of the clock.

The point of this is certainly not to suggests we should all race around like buffoons against time and never enjoy the simple moments we are in. It is however, to say that if there’s something/somewhere you’ve wanted to do, say, go, try that is always in the back of your head, it’s probably your own clock ticking and telling you to do it. The only thing in life that’s for sure is that the clock doesn’t stop for anything.

Here’s to respecting time and trusting the process.