I Have Been to the Mountaintop!

I've always wanted to go to the summit of Mt. Mckinley. Thanks to an invitation by Princess Cruises to participate in a Twitter Press trip to Alaska, I got to check another item off my bucket list! Shortly after we settled into the Denali Princess Lodge, we took a short ride to the airfield where several of the Twitteratti and our escorts from Princess Cruises hopped on a 1966 Beaver Plane and headed towards the summit!

Here we are pictured with Canada's Adventure Couple, the famous Dave & Deb, along with Karen, Nicole, and Guy (from Princess Cruises) and of course our pilot, Jim Andie (we kinda needed him.)


Sure, Mt. Everest is the highest point on earth, but the  Mount McKinley's vertical rise is nearly 6000 feet higher than Mount Everest from base to summit (Everest sits on the Tibetan Plateau which is17,000 feet above sea level to begin with)

For most of the flight everyone was quiet, taking in the beauty of the scenery. It was almost a spiritual experience.

At one point it looked as though we were going to fly right into the mountain. Someone asked the pilot, "shouldn't you like be turning or something about now?"  The pilot replied "Naw, we're still about five miles away."

After we landed, I got to interview Jim Andie, a man who has traveled all over the world and is living his bucket list.  When asked where he'd like to go, Jim said, "anywhere I haven't been."  Man,  I LOVE that!!

Kansas City Tweet-Up

One of the cool things about my job is that I get to meet some awesome people and ask 'em what's on their bucket list.

Here are a few awesome new friends I met at a "Tweet-Up" at Waldo Pizza in Kansas City. 

What's on your Bucket List?

AZ on the Rocks

The Midlife Road Trip show stopped by AZ on the Rocks in Scottsdale, Arizona for a little team building exercise with our Phoenix Ambassador, Andi Barness.

One of the great things about social media is meeting so many awesome people from all parts of the world. We met and became friends with Andi on Twitter. She was so incredibly helpful in hooking us up with all the cool things to do and great places to eat in the Phoenix area, and she was a blast to hang out with.  She and I raced to the top (You'll have to watch the video below to see who won). She also turned us on to Bryan's Black Mountain Barbecue in Cave Creek, AZ - some of the best BBQ west of the Mississippi!

If you ever plan to do much traveling I strongly encourage you to get involved with Facebook and Twitter and make some friends who can show you their neck of the world better than guide book or travelogue.

Who'd-a thunk that fried eggs on BBQ could be so good?

Midlife Road Trip stars, Sandi McKenna and Sher Bailey with our Phoenix Ambassador, Andi Barness.

Me and Bryan, himself!