Carrion Luggage

WDC25, Day 3

A few years ago, I drove through Nebraska, and stayed in a hotel there overnight.

This may not seem important to anyone. It was certainly boring for me. Nebraska isn't exactly the most exciting state in the US. It's primarily known for two things: corn and insurance.

The only significance to my visit was that it checked #48 off of the list of US states I've visited. The only ones left now are Alaska, for the obvious reason that it's cold and far away; and Michigan, which can also be cold, but isn't so far away.

The thing about Michigan is that it's not on the way to anywhere, at least not for me. That's the only reason I ever visited Nebraska: it was on the way to elsewhere (in this case, visiting a friend in Utah).

And it's not like the state doesn't have reasons to visit. For me, those reasons are breweries. I simply haven't gotten around to it yet.

Alaska's a different story. On maps that focus on the US, like the one in today's prompt (which you should be able to see if you expand the "Notes" below), it's never in the right place and rarely the right size. Based on that map, an uninformed person might believe that it's an island off the southwestern corner of the country, and that it's smaller than Texas.

Of course, we all know better, but that sort of thing confused me as a kid. That's what parents and teachers are for. But every once in a while, I'll see something on the internet about someone thinking Alaska's a big island somewhere, one that just happens to possess, in part, a long, straight coastline (where, in consensus reality, the state borders Canada). Some people are unteachable, I suppose. Or there are a lot of trolls. Or both.

Point is, though, there's almost nothing in Alaska that interests me. I'm sure there are breweries, which is reason enough to go even if I didn't have all 50 states on my fuck-it list. I have this vague idea that at some point in the relatively near future, I'll drive across the country again, this time looping up into Michigan for the hell of it (that's a pun, see, because there's an actual place in Michigan called Hell and, yes, it periodically freezes over). But the plan is to end up in Seattle, get on one of those cruise ships that I've never been on, and let it take me to Alaska. One day in Juneau or Anchorage (Fairbanks is way too far inland), and I can say I've been there. Maybe see some whales from the ship; I don't know.

That way, I can also tick "cruise ship" off my list, something I want to do but have been avoiding, because they're basically giant Petri dishes, perfect breeding grounds for microscopic pests of many varieties.

I'd better get started actually planning that, though. If the most optimistic of my friends are right, there won't be a 50-state union after the next year or so, rendering my list largely moot. If the least optimistic are right, I'll have to dodge radioactive craters on the way, because of the coming inevitable global apocalypse.

Notes: ▼

Written for "Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2025"  [E]

Prompt: Pick and choose one Photo Prompt and blog away.



539 words, excluding dropnote