Today is the Day…or Not. (by Sunshine)

Spare bedroom staging area

March 1^st. This is the day we have been planning for and telling everyone about for months. March 1^st. The first day of or big adventure. The day we head south and begin our journey. March 1^st. The Burro is loaded. The bags are packed. Lunches are prepared. March 1^st. The first day of a series of storms moving through Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky dropping up to 9” of snow in places. The storm will move through exactly where we are going at exactly the same time we were going to be there. The next storm will move through Wisconsin dropping up to 5 inches of snow. The storm after that will drop up to 3 inches in Kentucky. March 1^st. An extra day to prepare. A day of decisions. Do we leave tomorrow and try to sneak south between the storms potentially facing lots of rain and cold nights? Do we hole up at home and delay for 3-4 days? It is a tough decision because we are so anxious to begin our trip. Truth be told, both Jim and I are bad decision makers. Not that we make bad decisions. We actually discuss, research, and weigh outcomes until we make ourselves crazy. We just have a hard time choosing between two viable options. So here we are, Sunday afternoon, still not sure when we are leaving.

Loading the Burro

It has been very busy last few weeks making final preparations for the trip. We’ve said good bye to many family and friends. We’ve made arrangements for home care, yard care, utility shut off, online banking, mail forwarding. We’ve packed, unpacked, repacked. We’ve purchased all the things we think we’ll need for the Burro, car, entertainment, technology, cooking, navigating. We’ve prepared extra sets of keys, ensured everything is secure (propane tank, battery box, spare tire, storage box, car top carrier, hitch, Burro, vehicle), discussed worst-case scenarios (what if the laptop was lost/stolen) and how to protect ourselves. Yet we know there are things we haven’t thought of that will happen. And that’s okay. It is part of the journey. We tell ourselves multiple times a day “we need to be flexible.”

So flexibility it is. We’ll leave when the time is right. When the weather cooperates.