On our way

Today is the first day of our year long journey!  I can’t believe it is finally here and I don’t think I have realized we are really leaving Portland today for the next 13 months!  We’ll be back in August 2012!! 

I’m having very mixed emotions and am all over the place – feeling a little scattered.  Most likely due to the fact that it has been a sprint this week with the amount of stuff we had to do to get prepared to leave!  Last weekend was the big move.  Our friend Bonnie was generous enough to let us store all of our belongings at her house for the year.  So we rented a big Uhaul and loaded it with all our stuff.  I thought we had really minimized, but it was still alot!  Luckily, Mike asked one of his former basketball players to help and he brought a friend.  So all the heavy lifting and moving was taken care of – which was so helpful since Mike has been hurt. 

We also had to get the Condo prepared for our renters to move in today, so that meant lots of cleaning.  I for some reason also decided to take on painting the bathroom.  Looking back, that was a mistake as it was just too much to do while working my last week at Columbia.  Mike was patient and did all of the other cleaning which was great.

We did get to have some fun this week and one of my favorite things was riding my sweet cruiser over to Maria’s house to store for the year.  We dressed up in dresses and enjoyed riding together.  I’m going to miss those weekly rides!

I am really thankful that we have a few easy weeks in the USA to rest up and visit friends and family before we leave! It was really hard this morning to say goodbye to our dog Gidget, but I know that Bonnie will love her and take good care of her while we are gone.  She already loves her house:)

So the car is packed, our shots are complete, and I am no longer employed!  We are so ready to start our journey!