Memes: a state of mind or experience?

My visited map has this hole down at the bottom, matched by one up at the top:



create your own visited states map

States most recently picked up: New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, all in 2003. Before I moved to Massachusetts, even. Year most states were picked up: 1976, when I spent the summer on a 10,000-mile loop around the country driving and camping trip.

Still lots of Canadian provinces to go. I've been to: Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia (the latter for only about 2.5 hours — just the drive over the border, to Vancouver, and back again). I hope to add Alberta this summer.

States lived in: Michigan, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, with a four-month stay in New York. All Ms and Ns and 96% of the time in the Ms. Hmmm.

Going back a letter or three in the alphabet…or is it forward?

I went to my first Minicon committee meeting because I thought fans there would be interested in hearing about Dullcon, the first of the "D-Cons." It wasn't Dull, and it wasn't a convention, but rather a fannish expedition up to Duluth. I organized it after learning that many of my friends in Minneapolis had never been there. Another D-Con followed, then the "Not-A-D-Con" series began in 1986. Rather than going to Duluth, or the Wisconsin Dells, we stayed in Minneapolis. I invented the Wimpy Zone Fan Fund to bring pnh and tnh to town for the event. At its core was my desire to give fredcritter a present, and bringing P&T to town seemed likely to serve. Turns out it did. And it was the source of another excellent party, too. Win, win.

The Wimpy Zone Fan Fund was successful enough, and airfares low enough, that it also brought jonsinger to the first Not-A-D-Con, and, at Denny Lien's suggestion, Martha Beck, too. Fine times were had, and many more followed as the moons passed and the buffalo crossed the great prairies….

Conversations at ConFusion and last weekend's Vericon reminded me of those long-ago days, but it's the states meme du jour that has me writing about them now. Why? Because so few of us have been to Alaska.

My current plans and resources probably won't find me there for some time yet, but a cruise ship is likely to be involved. Hmmm, she thinks. Hmmmmm….

Gordon Garb spoke highly of his Alaska cruise a few years back, and I seem to remember others doing the same. calimac's description the Clipper cruise he and wild_patience took last summer sounded really quite fine, especially for those whose primary purpose is seeing Alaska rather than being on a cruise ship. Does anyone else have any cruise lines to recommend, or general cruising experience to help guide the decision-making process?

Are you interested in joining the Great Alaska Cruisecon, or at least hearing about plans for one, should one or more of us come up with some? My current budget demands that it certainly be no sooner than 2006, and I wouldn't be surprised if it took another two or three years beyond that. But it just somehow sounds like fun. Let me know if you think so, too.