Filling In The Blank Spots On The Map

I've been waking up in the pre-dawn hours and as I look at the ceiling, I have a single thought in my head: Antarctica. My trip to the south pole is so close but irritatingly not in my grasp just yet. I keep fuming in my head that it seems ridiculous, and frankly, unfair I just can't fast forward through this wait period and just be on that icy continent now already.

Despite my impatience, I love this phase of traveling. The start of trips are always the best. You have all the anticipation and excitement about what lies ahead. And what lies ahead is unexplored, unfamiliar territory. It is a faded spot on the map waiting to be defined. When I was a kid I would spin a globe and blindly jab my finger at a spot on it. Wherever my finger landed, Tanzania, Mongolia or even in the middle of the Atlantic, I instantly began to speculate what this colored block on the globe was like. That plastic globe with its crayola-colored countries gave me first jolt of inspiration to travel the world. I have to admit my finger never fell on the giant white blob at the bottom of the globe. I assumed Antarctica was just a place entombed in an endless winter.

Now the chance to find out just what lies at the Earth's bottom is so tantalizing that it keeps me up at night.