Terri, welcome to FT. Your post (as I have edited above) conveys the attitude of many posters here on FT, we want to collect every "friggin" mile we can, but it is also FUN. You may be a novice, but are well on your way to having the right attitude about traveling and collecting miles. As soon as the chase isn't fun anymore, then many of us would just become frequent flyers traveling from point A to point B .

Boards such as FT wouldn't exist if it weren't for people who love to travel and enjoy trying to squeeze every last mile out of the system we can. That is why many FT'rs spend so much time trying to find an insane route from SEA-JFK (via SFO-LAX-SLC-DFW-ORD-FLL-RDU-STL-IAD) for no reason other than the quest for miles and segments, and go above and beyond the call of duty eating Healthy Choice and Kellogs, not because they love the stuff, but b/c the chase of miles is just such a crazy fun thing to do. JMHO.

Welcome aboard and join the fun. I hope you get to Alaska b/c its a beautiful place to see.