Last night/First night

As you see, I still have the modem. The folks at Peak (my internet provider) are very cool folks. Later today I'll make the penultimate trip to storage. At that point I'll pretty much only have my next six months gear with me. I've got a place on tomorrow's late afternoon shuttle out of town, a room at an airport motel and a late morning flight on Tuesday! Woo hooo

(Later that same day) Well, I guess I really didn't need to keep the modem for the weekend since I didn't have anything new to add here. I did make the trip to the storage unit but actually, I still have a bit more with me now that my traveling gear but that'll all be put away tomorrow.

I'm a wee bit antsy. Imagine that.

Okay, so this is probably the last entry until I'm across the pond so until then "Live and be well"

Hasta la bye-bye for now.

Nervous anticipation

Yeah, the title sums up what's going on now. The apartment is basically empty. I'm sleeping on the floor, eating up whatever perishables I have. It's making for some weird meals. I still have a few amenities-a 13" TV, phone, radio w/CD player and my laptop which after Friday is only going to be good for playing games of Free Cell and Spider Solitaire because I have to return my high speed modem on Friday. I might be able to keep the modem for the weekend if I can negotiate a way to return it on the holiday on Monday. We'll see about that. There are still a few odds and ends that need to go into storage but that shouldn't be a problem. There's plenty of room as long as I can get the remaining items to stack (bicycle, unicycle and snow tires!) I kinda got ahead of myself in my endeavor to not get caught short so now there's not a lot to do to occupy my time before departure. I try to stick close to the apartment though because to do otherwise winds up costing $. (Yesterday coulda been lots of $ and more. Man, one little wee car crash can really put a twist in your shorts, ya know? No blood, no foul. Everybody drove away).
I'm spending time at the library plotting my course. That can get overwhelming so I'm just charting a rough outline and will wing it, mostly.
I'm also catching up on some reading. I like the kid's stuff so I'm reading the Twilight series.
On Friday, I'm going to have one more day at the TV station. The weekend will be the final clearing of the garage and after that I will twiddle my thumbs before I begin my peregrination! (Thanks, Patience!)

Storage x3

Good day for the storage unit. Three trips including some of the furniture and a bit of the garage. I'm also now paid up on the unit through July of next year. Now the concern is how much is going to fit in there because that place seems to shrink exponentially with each trip! I'm afraid that there will have to be at least one more visit to the consignment center &/or Goodwill.
Also wrapping up some other loose ends with the PNW Juggling Convention and I'll make one or two more visits to the station to clean up one of the projects I was working on.
That's the update for today. You may not find any of this exciting but I'm getting a big kick out of watching the apartment finally empty out.

Whelmed!

And that's where I'm at right now-I'm whelmed. To avoid getting overwhelmed, I've backed away from the project I was involved in on campus and will now just pay total attention to the trek. I'd say I'm about 85% packed into boxes. The biggest task ahead is getting it all to storage. I've found a great source for the perfect sized boxes and a big shout out to Borders Book Store for that! (Some folks don't like the big box stores but I'm not one of them.) I'm also into a more frugal mode and have decided not to hire anyone to help with that. With the smaller boxes it'll mean more but lighter trips up/down stairs and I'm going to consider it conditioning for what's ahead. My pack is about 30 lbs now. I still have one or two wee items to fit in, too, so I'll need all the fitness I can muster to keep that attached to me for the next 6 months.

Etickets, Eurail & BritRail Passes, few British Pounds to get started are all in hand. Can I just go now?

It's Coming Together

Well, there's not that much different than last post except there are more filled boxes than empty ones in my apt. Now I have to start moving them out to the teensy tiny storage unit I have waiting to be stuff to the gills. A week or so ago, I had a guy come over to give me an estimate to move my crap to the storage unit. He wandered around the apt and looked at the stuff in the garage and determined that I have about 1300 cubic feet of junk. My storage unit is 1K. Ooops! Last week, I took some stuff to a furniture consignment place so that'll give me a little bit of space and I figure that Harry Isuzu can hold some stuff, too.

I have repacked my backpack 219 times and no matter how I arrange stuff, it doesn't get any lighter. AND once in awhile the rearrangement of matter seems to decrease the volume but I always seem to find something to fill in the voids. I think I'll repack one more time and actually try to find stuff to leave here although I may wind up taking it because it simply won't fit in the storage unit either!

I finally broke down and bought a cheapo digital camera. I was gonna try to get by by just getting an SD card or memory stick and asking other people to take my picture with that card inserted in their camera. I'm glad I changed my mind on that because now that I have my own camera, I see how there is some chance of damagingsomeone's camera if they don't know what they are doing and besides, it would probably be really annoying. I also bought one of those wee little tripods so I'll be able to be in a shot or two.

No word on my visa application yet. Let's hope no news is good news. I did hear from the tour company that is taking me through India though and they hit a snag with my credit card but that's taken care of and I should be getting that tour info by the end of the week (Hmmm. . .hope it's concise paperwork or I might not have room for it!)

Well, other than throwing stuff in boxes and getting those boxesa out of the apt, I'm ready for this trip to start. I kinda sorta have my first few weeks planned out as far as where I'm going to go and I've started looking into modes of transport (train, bus, walk) and lodgings (hostels, B&Bs). B&Bs here are more expensive than cheap motels but I think they're a pretty good deal over there. I'll let you know.

Oh, I've started another blog, too, because, you know, I don't want to get bored. Check it out. . .www.rosereddominohunt.com And then let me know if you have any suggestions on how to run that game, eh.

Point of No Return

I'm truly committed now (or probably should be) and if anything (like the visa application process aka-Traveler's Catch-22) screws up now, it'll cost me dearly. Think good thoughts on that for me, eh? Eurail Pass is purchased, airfare is ordered and in the works. I should have ticket in hand Tuesday next week. Visa application is on its way to the visa processing place (again, good thoughts, please), notice given to apt management and related utilities, online banking established, I've made arrangements for Harry Isuzu to stay with a friend and I think I even have a home for my plants. I've made one trip to storage already and I'm stepping over boxes in the apt so I am making progress on that front, too. Help in that area would be appreciated (hint, hint) so much so that I called in a couple of students from OSU to given me an estimate on packing and moving my household and that may be the way I go-at least for the part that involves heavy lifting.
So, here's the skinny on the visas. I need three. Two require computer generated itineraries. In order to get an itinerary, I have to know where I'm going. I can't know where I'm going if I don't know if I can get into the country! There's the catch-22. It is advisable to have your visas in hand before you depart. One of the countries has a 6 month limit on their visa but the days start counting when your visa is issued. If I get the visa before I leave, it will expire before I get there! Another catch but I don't know what number. So, I'm gonna shoot craps on this, because, you know that raises the adventure aspect of this whole affair. I just sent my passport along with the visa application to a visa processing place to get my visa for the first country I will enter requiring a visa. (How many times can you use 'visa' in one sentence?) I'm hoping the passport returns before I fly away. Assuming that it arrives back to me in time for me to start the trip as planned (this is where the aforementioned 'cost me dearly' may come into play), I'll make my other visa applications along the way. I'm kinda looking forward to visiting the Vietnam embassy in Italy, for instance. Could be quite the cultural treat and that's what it's all about (and you thought it was the Hokey Pokey!)
I have all my required shots. Naturally, those shots are only required in those countries that also require. . . wait for it. . . visas! I've also got a stock pile of antibiotics and travelers trots remedies and a bunch of malaria pills. The amount of pharmaceuticals in my backpack for this six month journey is more than the combined total of any I have taken in the first 1/2 century of my life! The optimist in me is saying it's all just precautionary. The realist in me knows it's gonna take rotten situations and make them bearable. I'm not letting the pessimist have any say in this.
I'm all packed. I even took the loaded pack for a test drive today and walked through downtown and explored the Saturday Farmer's market. THE guidebook (caps intentional) I'm using for the EU part of my trip suggests that test drive. One of the packing guidelines says to look over what you think you want to take then pull out half the items and add twice the money. I've pared down the items pretty well to the point that I have room in my 2640 ci pack! The 2xs the money part, yeah, that's not gonna happen, Cap'n.
Well, I've just returned from scoring some good sized boxes for books so I've gotta get busy filling them.
If anyone has any questions, comments or snide remarks about my upcoming adventure, I'd love to hear them. Take care all.