T Minus 18
People are saying "Now it's getting real" to me on an increasing basis. My last day of work was last Friday (today is Wednesday) so I'm on day three of my new life in which everyday is a mad sprint to accomplish pre-departure things.
There's a not-so-small part of me that wishes we were leaving tomorrow. Just rip the band-aid off and get it over with! For this first phase of the trip, in which we drive our own vehicle from Oregon to Minnesota and then base ourselves there for about two months, we have basically everything we need. A big accomplishment this week was obtaining and installing a bike rack. Ultimately, this required a hacksaw, duct tape and some moleskin (to protect our bumper from a security bolt) but now it's on there!
We ordered packing cubes yesterday. A few weeks ago we ordered a set of color coded matching rolling bags for the four kids. (This winter we had settled on a set of Osprey duffels for ourselves.) I'm kind of bummed that the packing cubes we picked aren't the ones that come in a dozen colors. But they are still different, which I guess is the key. In other words, we're about an hour away from having all the kids' clothes shoved into bags and putting them in the car.
So I guess what's really hard is that there's so much we have to do now for the third phase, which starts on November 1. We're getting all our vaccines, organizing all of our documents, booking our hotels and flights.
Here are some questions I hope to answer in the next few weeks:
1. How will we get from Asia to Africa?
2. How (and when) will we get from Africa to Europe?
3. When am I going to find time to take the typhoid vaccine, which has to be one hour before breakfast on days 0, 2, 4 and 8?
4. Is it all going to fit in the van when we drive away on June 23rd?
ps: sorry for no pictures, I'm figuring this blog platform out one step at a time.
There's a not-so-small part of me that wishes we were leaving tomorrow. Just rip the band-aid off and get it over with! For this first phase of the trip, in which we drive our own vehicle from Oregon to Minnesota and then base ourselves there for about two months, we have basically everything we need. A big accomplishment this week was obtaining and installing a bike rack. Ultimately, this required a hacksaw, duct tape and some moleskin (to protect our bumper from a security bolt) but now it's on there!
We ordered packing cubes yesterday. A few weeks ago we ordered a set of color coded matching rolling bags for the four kids. (This winter we had settled on a set of Osprey duffels for ourselves.) I'm kind of bummed that the packing cubes we picked aren't the ones that come in a dozen colors. But they are still different, which I guess is the key. In other words, we're about an hour away from having all the kids' clothes shoved into bags and putting them in the car.
So I guess what's really hard is that there's so much we have to do now for the third phase, which starts on November 1. We're getting all our vaccines, organizing all of our documents, booking our hotels and flights.
Here are some questions I hope to answer in the next few weeks:
1. How will we get from Asia to Africa?
2. How (and when) will we get from Africa to Europe?
3. When am I going to find time to take the typhoid vaccine, which has to be one hour before breakfast on days 0, 2, 4 and 8?
4. Is it all going to fit in the van when we drive away on June 23rd?
ps: sorry for no pictures, I'm figuring this blog platform out one step at a time.
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