Kids in Alaska don't know they're growing up on the Last Frontier. It's just what they see on the license plates, and it's something tourists like to say a lot because they've never been around so many mountains and moose before.

Could the garment and appliance industries be in cahoots together, creating an artificial sock demand to keep us buying?

John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you'll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live. And there's a lot of truth to that.

There's a lot of people around Alaska now who are actually running the place who claim to just have gone there for the summer once 30 years ago. And that seems to be what happens.

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.

The general direction seems to be becoming fairly clear to me, but every new piece is a small adventure.

A traveler is really not someone who crosses ground so much as someone who is always hungry for the next challenge and adventure.

I get very homesick, but otherwise it's a great privilege to get to travel for work.