Are We Excited Yet?

We've just finished our last weekend at home before the big journey. Leaving home for three weeks requires a lot of planning and a lot of prep work. There are weeds to be destroyed, laundry to be done, food to be planned to last just through Thursday night, bills to pay, food and drink to fill the basket and cooler purchased, magazines to find, books to select, a van to be prepared and packed, etc. etc. etc.

The van is in the garage where it can be easily accessed. We're to the point of loading it---very gradually. It's not too early to stuff the magazines behind the passenger seat. Three "Os" and a number of "New Yorkers" have been saved for our reading pleasure. I like to peruse magazines when on the boring interstate highways, and I often read aloud good articles from the NYs. The books we are selecting and packing will be saved for nights in the hotel rooms.

Our vacation clothes are ready to go---this week we're wearing stuff we won't take with us. We've hung our jackets in the van, both light weight and heavier. It seems strange to be packing coats when it is so hot, but I well remember snow in Yellowstone one August, and we are going into pretty high altitudes. Better to have them and not need them than to freeze! Umbrellas are in place, as is our phone charger. We even have an extension cord rigged up in case we need some electric power. Let's face it: When two adults travel in a Honda Odyssey they don't tend to travel light!

Don has made a "drinks" run. Cokes are easy, but orange soda, Jones Creme Soda, and small bottles of water had to be found. I know, bottles of water are a terrible waste of plastic and they will live in landfills forever, but just one more time, I'm going for convenience. In view of the heinous reputation of plastic, I'm wondering why you can't buy plastic credit like carbon credits!

I think we are actually beginning to feel some excitement over this adventure that has been in the planning stages for so long! It will be great to actually back out of the driveway on Friday!