North to Alaska

Much as I despise the old restaurant, I saw one of their new commercials today and laughed aloud. It involved five business people in an office, making a conference call. The person on the other end of the line asked them to hold, and the all-too-well-known elevator hold music began to play over speakerphone. The business people all glanced around at each other, then immediately jumped up for a five-second rendition of musical chairs until the call was answered on the other line.

Flugtag today didn't go as originally planned, with Stavros and the gang, because one JB did not get back to me about the plans. I went with Derek instead, it ended up being pretty cool, aside from the scorching heat and a little more than slight sunburn. I took a few pictures before my camera's battery died, I'll upload those later.

Kevin sent me a message telling me that he's in Bratislava now, which immediately conjured the image of a decrepit wasteland of a town as portrayed in Eurotrip, but apparently that part of Slovakia isn't like that at all. According to him, it's quite beautiful.

He told me about some travelers he's met and his plan to have a north-to-south trip in 2011, starting in Alaska and working their way down through South America. We've already talked about backpacking through South America, but the new plan would allow me to visit places in my own country to which I've never before been.

He suggested I save up about $10,000 by then (the next two and a half years, or so) which would be roughly $330 per month. If I continue to make $400 per week at The Restaurant, I can make rent and pay bills in a little under three weeks, leaving over one week's pay for miscellaneous expenses and saving.

It can be done.

And this is the trip I've been trying to take for the past four years.