An Investor, A Writer and Some Ball Players Walk Into a Blog

Have you ever noticed how unbelievably tiny Alaska makes the rest of the United States seem? I'll be traveling with Scotty, Janine and Moose to an island off Ketchikan named Metlakatla. That is still over 1,000 miles south of Anchorage - the "real" part of Alaska people think of. Seward's Folly my ass - that man knew a good deal when he saw one. So much land, oil, opportunity and protection from the Commies - definitely the steal of that century.

My amazement with Alaska is inversely proportional to my interest in the Mid West. I know that Bill Bryson has a huge soft spot in his heart for Iowa and Warren Buffet loves his Omaha home base, but I can honestly find nothing that interests me.

Take a look at the glorious locations I'm planning to stop on this journey:


View Larger Map

Notice that HUGE hole in the middle with no blue markers? Yeah, that is the Mid West. Seriously, I've searched for things to do, and this is what I've come up with:

• Go to a Cardinal's Game


• Go to a Royal's Game

That's it. And one of those options isn't really all that appealing. I'd rather pay $4 to go to a Lowell Spinner's game than watch the Royals throw like Johnny Damon and hit like Jason Kendall. Maybe I'll just zoom across that 1,200 mile void where life ceases to exist after 8pm (9pm on Saturdays!) in a day and a half so I can focus more on the beautiful areas within a day's drive of an ocean.

Other than that huge hole, I think I have a pretty good route planned. Of course it will change, but that is one of the great benefits of Google Maps. Routes can be changed on a whim simply and quickly. 5 years ago we were stuck with the horrible interfaces, bad directions and awful color schemes provided by MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps. Now we have Google Maps with a slick interface, lots of add-ons (like personal maps, drag-and-drop driving directions, easy zoom, etc) and a great open API that anyone with a good idea and some decent programming chops can use to make a mash-up (check out housingmaps and gmap-pedometer if you never have).

Gone bye are the days of TripTicks from AAA, 4 different color hi-liters and a hand full of paper cuts. Welcome to the new Millennium where all I need is a MacBook with Google Earth and an internet connection (thanks Panera!). That's it. Fire it up, zoom on in and get directions. Brilliant!