And we're off!

Today's the day. After a year and a half of waiting, we finally start our trip. I was given a send-off party yesterday at work. I'm blessed to work with the absolute nicest people in the world. I know, you think you do, but you're wrong. I will miss them a lot while I'm on this trip.

Jan's busy doing her last-minute cleaning so our burglar(s) aren't shocked by the state of our house. That's important, right? We made our final packing arrangements last night. I took a lesson from a Southwest packing video and from Clark Howard and decided to wear my heaviest clothing. I took out that coat that the tour company sent, and my big bag actually got below the fifty-pound mark. No such luck with Jan's bag, though. We're probably going to be paying for the extra poundage.

My son still gets this look on his face like we're dragging him to his doom. I think once he's underway, and gets to some of the amazing places we're going, he'll come around. If not, at least he'll like the water park in Dubai.

Three more days

Just three more days. I think I'm ready, but I have to have something to worry about. That's just me. I have everything packed I can think of. I'm sure there's something I've forgotten, but my sister says as long as I have a passport, some clothes, shoes and a camera I should be good to go. My big worry now is that we'll get to the airport and they'll tell my my duffel bag is too big and they won't check it. It is a very big bag. I think I may be too prepared. I don't have enough left to do to keep me busy and I'm starting to get antsy. I'm going to be driving Jan crazy before we leave.

First Pictures

These are pictures of the stuff I'm taking on the trip. Actually, this is just to experiment with putting pictures in my posts. This is an attempt using Picasa and the Blog This! button.

These are my shoes. My hiking boots are out of frame on the right.













This is my expedition jacket provided by the tour company. It has a zip-out fleece lining. It's a nice jacket, but somewhat heavier than the other rain coat I've got.












This is my other rain coat and rain pants.











My shorts and bathing suit. Those are my many cheap sunglasses on the left side of the picture.







Underwear. I don't know if it's funtawear, but I hope it's comfortable. I'm normally an all-cotton kind of guy, but was told that wasn't a good idea for the kind of traveling we'll be doing. We'll see.






Shirts. Seems like a lot to me, but my wife assures me I'll need all of them. We'll have some chances to do laundry, but I guess she wanted to be sure I wouldn't be stinking up the place when we have to be in close quarters.





My pants. This seems like a more reasonable selection than my shirts. Not too much duplication or overlap of function. That's the backpack the tour company sent me on the left. It's OK, but I would have preferred to bring my own. They like us to have stuff alike so they know what belongs to tour people.






This my big ol' duffel bag. It holds a lot of stuff, and has wheels on one end so it rolls. I'm counting on it holding all this mess.