Leaving in three weeks

As May 1 approaches, our trip is starting to feel very real. Lorrie has done a great job managing our preparations these last few months. We bought a pickup truck in January — a Ford F150. Friends say we must name it, so we’re calling it “the beast” for now but are open to better suggestions. The beast is about twice as big as any car we have ever owned, and we’re getting used to driving it. Lorrie got it outfitted with a cap over the bed to keep our stuff dry and running boards on the sides to help us climb in. Our good friend Jeff generously worked with me to build a platform on the bed just above the wheel wells so we can store bins underneath and sleep on top in a pinch. Actually, it was Jeff who designed it and did most of the work while I held the wood in place. Thanks Jeff! Lorrie will have a rear view camera and interior LED lighting installed this next week, and then we’ll be ready to load it.

This afternoon/evening is our first farewell party and my mental deadline for getting this website in good enough shape to feel ok about sharing it. I have enjoyed learning about webdesign and benefited greatly from the generous tutelage of our friend Hans in Albuquerque. He’s terrific and has a webdesign business. Please note that all glitches and any clunkiness on our site are entirely my responsibility because I wouldn’t let Hans actually build the site for us. Instead, he talked me through in three or four long videoconference calls. I showed the site yesterday to my friend Dan, who seemed moderately impressed that I could blog and post by iPhone. Unfortunately, he didn’t like the picture I took of him, so I had to take it down.

Back to today’s party. Dylan is slow cooking two pork butts on one (or two) of three big green eggs that now live on our patio. The party is the first of two; our friends Helen and Mike have generously offered to host a second party in two weeks for friends who can’t make it tonight…or who want to party with us twice! We’re looking forward to spending time with many of our DC friends and a few who are coming in from out of town. We hope to entice many friends to join us at some point or points of our journey these next two years!