“What began nearly 100 years ago on a bet between two local bars has evolved into one of baseball’s unique natural events. The Midnight Sun Game, played in Fairbanks on the summer solstice every year since 1906, is played in the middle of the night with only natural light.”

How can that not be on my bucket list? Hey…, good news….

So several of my decades ago, the trip was about a humor-filled, blue-eyed lass with a special spirit, a convertible, the mountains and a summer solstice trek. I met that girl about 25 years ago, and we have built a good life together. And while she enjoys baseball and all, we have toured Tuscany in that convertible, and, well, so it goes.

Two decades ago, it became an idea about a motorcycle journey, and I didn’t ride. Time opened that door, and the dream became more than a glimmer. Alaska will become my 49^th state — only Mom’s North Dakota will await after the boys and I cross from the Yukon.

And it was always supposed to be the Midnight Sun Game. Business never intervened to send me there. Lynn and I had thought about Sitka for a music festival several years ago, and in my daydreams, I worried that my first time in Alaska would NOT be this trek.

What do you know…, a check on the bucket list is just days away….