Countdown

There are so many crazy things you have to do before you leave on a long vacation. At 6:40 this evening I realized I had forgotten to stop the newspaper. Fortunately the circulation department is open until 8 to take calls from cranky people who didn't get their paper on time. They said they'd stop it starting tomorrow already. Whew!

I've been especially busy the past week with wrapping up teaching for the semester. Today was our final day of class, but when I got home I had to run the pet lizards to Emily's house, which turned into a 2 hour trip because of road construction and traffic delays. Then I had to finish putting all the maps in order and making sure I have all the phone numbers set. In the middle of all this I got a phone call from one of the campgrounds where we hoped to stay giving me the reservation confirmation, so I had to quickly write another check and add it to the stack of bills getting mailed out tomorrow.

I still haven't packed a single article of clothing (for a one month trip!) and it's just about 8 PM. I'll be lucky to be in bed by midnight. Tomorrow morning I have three errands to run in Grand Rapids while Theresa and the kids get the trailer packed. If everything goes right (and it probably won't), we'll be on the road by 11 tomorrow morning. Google Maps tells me it will be about a 7 hour drive to Hannibal, Missouri, where we're staying Friday night. We'll see.

We will not have internet access until Saturday at least, so this is probably our last post before we leave. Our campground in Dodge City, Kansas advertises wireless internet, but we'll see how much they want us to pay for it. Almost all of the places we're staying after this weekend offer free wireless.