Choose Your Own Adventure: Here's to Plan B!

In Alaska, there is always a Plan B and usually a Plan C and D. Planning here in the summer is based mainly on the weather, and in the winter, the snow stability. It can also be influenced by what others are stoked about and even some days, a hangover or the need to sleep will shut down or postpone all plans. It's common to talk about doing one thing on Monday and by Friday your plan has morphed 3-4 times with still no final destination determined until you wake in the morning.

This is similar in traveling. When I travel, I try my best not to make plans. Who knows who you'll meet along the way or what side adventures you may embark on. Leaving options open is half the fun of it. Obviously, ideas can shape an outline of a trip but for me it's freeing, knowing that I can make decisions on the fly about each and every day. I also know that more often than not, things don't go as planned. Therefore, it's good to always have a backup or be quick to accept it when things change. That being said, my initial travel plans have completely changed. Last week I got news that my travel buddy, Logan, needed to postpone our trip by 3-4 weeks. Damn grad school! At first, I thought my only options were to stay in Colorado or to head to Colombia by myself. Neither of these options I liked.

It turns out that three of my guy friends (Sam, Anson, and Nate) from Alaska are planning to head to Chile/Argentina to ski for 3 weeks the exact day I was planning to head to Colombia. Until this point, I had thought it was a shame we would all be in South America at the same time but completely miss each other. I can't even count how many times people asked if I was bringing my skis. I, disappointedly, would shake my head and explain, "No, not this time. Someday, though." With Logan's change in plans, I started looking into joining Sam, Nate, and Anson for a few weeks in September and then heading to Colombia. Switching my flights and figuring out how to make it work was very easy. I could use Alaska air miles to get from Denver to Santiago, and then fly Santiago to Cartagena, Colombia at the end of September. This would work better with Logan's timing and I would be able to travel with my best friend, Miss Katy White, in Colombia on her way back from the Galapagos. PERFECT!

I accepted very quickly that a few weeks of skiing would add a large cost to my overall trip, but when else do you have 3 good friends offering you a spot on their ski trip to South America (I'm gonna say never...)
So here's to going with the flow and accepting a plan B (a VERY awesome plan B).

CHEERS!
-LP