Burt Reynolds will be taking a seven-day vacation while we set sail on the Carnival Spirit, a vessel we have code-named ‘Burt Reynolds II’. We will be travelling from Seattle, Washington to these Alaskan destinations: Juneau, Glacier Bay, Skagway, and Ketchikan, before returning to port in Vancouver, Canada.

Over the past month we have become really worried that we will be unable to make it to Alaska on this trip. We set out with the goal of travelling through every province, state, and territory in Canada and the United States but based on the visa we were issued at the United States border, we only have until October 19th to visit every state, before we are expunged from the country. This poses a massive problem for us because we still have 11 States left to do: Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii, and poor Vermont. This means that we would have to somehow drive 50+ hours to Alaska, explore, then drive 50+ hours back to the us border in order have a chance of achieving our goal within the allotted time. Given the amount of other States we still have left to visit, this investment in time would make it near impossible to drive through the areas of the continental US we have yet to visit. Throw in winter road conditions and it becomes even trickier.

But just this week, Carnival heard about our problem and offered us a solution. They have a very small amount of availability left on the Carnival Spirit and they offered us a cabin on the vessel! When we read the e-mail containing this offer we were such a mess of emotions that we were jumping on our beds, crying, and typing a thank you letter all at the same time!

We can’t possibly thank Carnival enough for helping the alexandluke.com project achieve our goal of visiting every province, state, and territory in Canada and the United States. A small gesture that you could do that would mean a lot to us is to also thank them on Twitter on our behalf! If you click here, a Tweet will be automatically generated to do so!.

We depart from Seattle on September 7th – that’s next Tuesday! If you have been to any of the Alaskan cities mentioned above and have any suggestions for us, leave them below. And if you have ever been on a Carnival cruise (maybe you have even voyaged on the Spirit before) let us know your favorite thing to do whilst on board. If you have never been on a cruise (like Luke), look forward to the content we will be making on the Spirit to help give you a sense of what life on a cruise is like!

Alaska!!!!!

a&l

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The results of this vote might not send us in the winner’s direction just yet, but it will matter eventually – let me explain.

We are currently in Washington State, which directly borders two regions we have yet to visit – Idaho and British Columbia. However, Seattle is also a prime location for departures to Alaska via cruise ship and Hawaii via airplane.  We have always hoped to visit both of these American states, but getting to them with Burt Reynolds (our car) may not be entirely feasible (we would need a barge for Hawaii, and we could drive to Alaska, but by the time we get there, the roads might be too treacherous for poor Burt). So, we have reached out to the Hawaii and Alaska tourism communities to see if anyone could help to get us there (unfortunately Burt will have to stay behind this time).

If we don’t find ourselves on a cruise ship or an airplane this week, we will head to the winning region you vote for instead.  If we do manage to get to Hawaii or Alaska, we will be returning to Seattle in about a week, where we will then head to the winning region and start exploring.

Make sense?

Basically – vote on where you want us to drive next, and if  we end up on an airplane or a cruise ship in the mean time, the winning region will simply be pushed back a week or so.

One more thing to consider… as you may know, British Columbia is a Canadian Province, while Idaho is a State. We are required to complete our tour of the United States by mid/end October (as stated on our Visa’s), so if we are voted to Canada now, it might severely limit the amount of time we are able to explore the remaining states (unless customs is nice and re-issues us new visas). That said – British Columbia has plenty of Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalets and people who sound like us so we won’t turn it down, eh!

Vote Now:

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Click #Idaho to let people know you vote for Idaho on Twitter.
Click #British Columbia to let people know you voted for British Columbia on Twitter.

This vote closes tonight (Tuesday August 31) at 8pm ET so tell your friends!

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because he is currently filling our third seat, because he has embraced the unpredictable spirit of life on the social media controlled road with open arms, because he brought new music for us to listen to and because he is the perfect pin-ball and arcade partner… our favourite follower this week is the one and only @harperdudevice from montreal canada!!!

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We’re keeping it short and sweet this week. Should we drive to Washington or Idaho?



Washington

We will drive West until we hit the ocean and take the long oceanside drive on the 101 from Oregon to Washington.
Click #Washington to let people know you voted for Washington on Twitter.


Idaho

We will drive East along Highway 84 towards Idaho. We will be exploring what rural/forested/mountainous Oregon looks like on our way to the Idaho border.
Click #Idaho to let people know you vote for Idaho on Twitter.

The first State to receive 50 votes wins.

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a&l

PS
Although it doesn’t affect this vote. We need to firm up with the United States customs department about whether or not we will be able to start criss-crossing between Canada and the United states for future votes. The nature of our Visa is making what appears to be relatively easy to do by looking at a map surprisingly hard.

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