A thousand and one different little odds and ends that have either gotten done or need to be done at this point. The list never ends. ..................Sort gear for the kayak trip, dehydrating and organizing food, sorting gear for the backpacking section, arranging plane tickets, arranging couch surfing with friends and family in Europe, getting up to date on vaccines, filling prescriptions for being gone including malaria prophylaxis, training for the physicality of what we are going to do, planning a wedding in Thailand including sending out the invitations, getting my powers of attorney/banking/taxes/medical insurance arranged for being gone for 2 years, getting car insurance and an international drivers license for Mexico, getting passport photos for visas, packing the house into storage, change of addresses, finishing up working at the hospital, trying to grab in a last day of skiing or two, organizing medical and repair kits, sanding down the boat bottom to make it hydrodynamic and resealing the bulkheads to make them water tight, registering EPIRBS (satellite emergency beacon), arranging some sponsors, working on learning a little more Spanish, figuring out Skype and cell phones for communicating with home, throwing a going away party......................................., ad nauseam. I eventually had to make a list of all the little lists I had.
However, now with less then 2 weeks to go before the rubber hits the road it seems like it is all coming together. Most of the time I have been too busy to think about things, especially with my last days at work at the hospital. It is better that way. At the times where things slow down I can have my occasional brief freak out. The magnitude of what we are about to attempt hits me like a ton of bricks. I have been on multiple 3 month trips and a couple of 6 month long trips but never 2 years. This trip is like taking many of my previous trips and combining it into one huge package. As before any of my big trips it is a combination of excitement with some fear of the unknown mixed in. It ends up like a big ball of butterflies in my stomach. The same kind of feeling when you first meet someone you really like, or when you are about to go for a big interview, or about to go on stage in front of a lot of people. Mostly it's excitement but I really just need to get this ball rolling.
In the meantime, I think I will just go pack.
