WHY ALASKA? WHY NOW?

AS the daughter of a retired Marine, I became used to road tripping early in life as it was the primary mode of transport for changing duty stations and family vacations.

As an adult, I continued to take to the road with my own son because it afforded the opportunity to see much more of the the country than flying and provided great opportunities for conversations about the places we went and the things we did along the way.

At present, I've seen 42 of the 50 states and lack only the Northern Plains (the Dakotas, Montana & Wyoming), Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon & Washington) and Alaska.  Having lived 30 years longer and traveled more extensively than me, my Mom has seen all but Alaska!  During my Dad's lifetime, whenever Mom would remind him how much she wanted to see Alaska to complete the 50 states, Dad declined, having already seen Alaska (and not the best of it) during his military service.  He joked, "You can see Alaska when I'm dead."

Dad passed away in February 2017, and I moved in with Mom to help her manage the household and take care of various tasks that have become too difficult for her.  We attended the retirement party of one of our neighbors a couple of months back and they talked about taking a trip up the Alaska Highway as one of their retirement goals.  Later in the week, Mom turned to me and said, quite out of the blue, "I really do want to make that trip to Alaska I always talked about."  I'd promised Dad that as long as I was here to look after Mom, I'd do my best to accommodate her every wish, so it's off to Alaska we go!  

I thought we'd fly/cruise, but Mom didn't want the hassle of flying.  Then I explored train travel, but that would have necessitated leaving a car somewhere far from home.  And ultimately, it was Mom who said she'd be most comfortable just taking it easy on the road.  So road trip it is!  

In addition to Mom and myself, my 12-year-old grandson, Paul is going to accompany us on our epic journey, and make a serious dent in his own 50-State quest.