Letter from the road - January 3rd, 2007: Dear loyal listener... This marks the 44th blog posting from my trip. It's been particularly cold on this leg of the journey. I guess that's what you get for hitchhiking Alaska this time of year. I've been calling the office for almost two weeks straight, but no answer. I'm starting to think that they sent me up here on a ruse of some sort. Like maybe if they got me out of the office on my first vacation in 7 years they'd have a chance to actually have some fun or something. I'm pretty damn sure I heard Antoinette say something about St. John, but that could have just been the voices again. I spent about fifteen miles with a group of hippies last night. I mean real hippies, not the kind that don't shower and eat raw corn all the time. Bona-fide hippies. Got tuned-out and turned-on in '68 or something and never looked back. Main girl is called Ragina (nasty) and thinks it's 1970. Literally. Keeps bitching about Nixon and how the commies are going to save the world. Still, I may be in love with her. I have my reasons. My thoughts run to the office again - seventy-one of us, all crammed in that little space. Angeline (my driver) with that floppy mane of hair and sarcastic attitude that can only come from an upbringing in rural Wales, Sophie (chef) and her Sonoma foie-gras compote topped Roti A La Broche and constant humming out-of-tune, Vanity (really her name, types up my dictation when Delissa is at lunch) plucking her brows. I miss them all. But I know that being on the road is important for me, too. That the journey is the journey and not the destination, or however the saying goes. That time spent away from the office will make me healthier and the company right along with it. Still, I'm concerned that nobody's answering the phones...