AS NORTH AS POSSIBLE

Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11) is a 414-mile (666 km) road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse near the Arctic Ocean and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Once called the North Slope Haul Road, it was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974.
It is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. There are no towns; the few settlements are truck stops. The 240 miles (384 km) from Coldfoot to Deadhorse have no services for travelers at all. The highway also comes to within a few miles of the Arctic Ocean. (Wikipedia).

"Remind me, why are we going there?" asked Keith.
"To see where the road leads!" I answered.

Keith and Robin were not planning to take the trip, but decided to give me a ride to the Arctic Ocean - just a small detour of a thousand kilometers... We arrived around midnight - it was as light as day. I took a dip in the Ocean and we started our journey back.


"Did you win a lottery or something?" asked Robin when she had heard where I had come from.
"It does not take money to travel my way," I said.
"What does it take?"
"A wish."


I told Keith and Robin that in Japan I kept writing the word "Alaska" in the sand whenever I came to the sea.
"What are you writing in the sand now?" asked Keith.
"I have not been on the beach for a long time..." I said.
"You know what I mean," said Keith.
"Winter," I replied
On our way back it started snowing.
"Just put it out there!" said Keith with a smile.



Everybody kept saying how miserable that summer in Alaska had been. It never stopped raining on our way to Prudhoe Bay.
"Blue skies and sunshine," said Keith every once in a while looking into the endless gray.
"Blue skies and sunshine, indeed! Just put it out there!" I said when at 3.40 AM we enjoyed the most beautiful sunrise.



"Like sitting in a postcard, watching out", I remembered the expression I had heard from truckdriver Rod, who took me from Dawson City in Yukon, Canada to Fairbanks in Alaska,U.S. I arrived to Fairbanks on July 26th - exactly one month after landing in Los Angeles, California.