And So it Begins…

The day has finally come, we are finally on our way.  After talking about this trip for over a year and dreaming about for even longer, I can’t believe we actually made the dream come true.  We are finally on the road.  Our year long honeymoon adventure has begun, #epicjeuckhoneymoon

The last few months have been a blur.  As I talked about in my last post, we have just been going non-stop.  We went right from wedding planning to trip planning/packing up our house mode in the blink of an eye.  And now it is surreal that we are actually “on our honeymoon”.

We packed up most of our stuff in boxes and cleared out our garage to make room for my mom’s furniture.  For those who don’t know, my mom will be staying in our house while we are gone.  She is going to be remodeling her place, and is graciously taking care of our two cats (as well as her own two, fingers crossed they get along) and living in our house.  The last few weeks have been moving our stuff out and her’s in.  It has been good to purge.

When it comes to preparing for a trip, Andi and I definitely differ in styles.  She is always getting ready days before I am.  I like to take care of other important stuff, and then throw it all together at the last-minute.  I can honestly say that if it weren’t for Andi, we would have not gotten out of Menlo Park today.  She knows I have been stressed the past few days trying to take care of the “big things” that are in my wheelhouse.  Things like “routine” trailer maintenance, getting cars ready to be stored, installing arbors and showing my mom how to use our TV.  But she has been taking care of all the little things, and in this case the devil really is in the details.  Now I was in the Scouts and know a thing or two about lists, but Andi takes it to a whole new level(thanks Barbara).  And that is a compliment in the truest form.  It is due to her, and her alone, that so far we have only come up with one very, very minor thing that we have forgotten.

So it is with a heavy heart and a strong will that Andrea, Sparky and I left our home in Menlo Park, CA and headed out on the road today.  We are excited for new adventures, but at the same time will miss our friends and family.  My mother came over to see us off today.  While we were getting ready to take off, we had an amazing impromptu meeting of our neighbors who came out to bid us farewell.  It was my mom’s first time meeting some of them and I know my mother will be in good hands living in our house with neighbors like them.

Andi and I were not the only ones who were a little apprehensive of this trip.  Sparky got a new safety harness to keep him buckled into a seatbelt and safe from flying across the truck in case of an accident.  He hasn’t really gotten used to this harness yet and was less than enthusiastic to put it on.  We hope he will adjust.  Luckily it didn’t take long for him to start judging my driving.

The journey today wasn’t without issue.  We had to stop to pick some things up and we got on the road a little late.  But so what if we left a little later than we hoped and made it to Mt. Shasta a little later than we had planned.  We made it, and that is the important part.  So begins the next chapter in our lives.