For me really good road trips have always had the freedom to be spontaneous. You shouldn’t have to worry about where you are going that day, how you are getting there or where you are staying when you get there. If you come to a side road with the worlds largest ball of twine at the end, run down and see it because you never know when you will have that chance again.

I think of the itinerary below as our guiding principles, with a few hard facts. We leave August 24. We are taking the Alaska Marine Highway ferry up to Haines and the ferry will leave without us if we don’t show up on time. We need to be back around September 7th, and of course we’re going to the Arctic Circle, and than some.

A few folks are now suggesting to us that Inuvik is a more interesting choice than Deadhorse as a northern destination. Leave comments and let us know where you would go. We have the freedom on this trip to run a social experiment where the people of the blog guide its outcome and literally set the direction.

Of course plans are meant to change and who knows where else we’ll explore on this adventure… all we know is that it will change for one reason or another.