Sure James, looking forward to the results of your trip and your blends

This digital blending of exposures is one of the best things available to us photographers, it's the digital equivalent to bringing a complete collection of ND Grads into the field...
Usually I just put the darker exposure on top of the lighter one, and mask it with the gradient tool until it looks good.

I wish they uncluded this simple blending technique in the next version of ACR... Should not be difficult IMHO.