The Final Countdown...

I can't believe that is almost time to go! We've been planning this trip for so long and it has always seemed soooo far away. I decided to start this blog to help those people who are trying to keep track of where we are and to share all of the wonderful places we are about to visit. Plus, this is my chance to brag about how lucky we are to have this chance to hit the road.
The good news is that we have the fifth wheel back with (hopefully) all slides repaired and properly sealed. Not thrilled that we had to have major repairs done before it was a year old, but it was all covered under warranty and taken care of before we were thousands of miles away from home and left with no place to sleep.

I hadn't realized that we don't have a good picture of the outside of the fifth wheel - I'll have to change that soon.

The bad news is that I now have one week left to get the land yacht ready to roll. Anyone who has traveled with me knows that I am a major overplanner and have a serious problem with overpacking. I have been researching, reserving, and making lists for months to try and make sure the seven (oh, eight - can't forget Bernie) of us are all happy and still speaking to each other by the end of the trip. For those of you not in the know (which means that you must not live in our town - everybody within a 20-mile radius knows everything about our trip!) Don, Gavin, Gabriella, my mom, Don's mom & dad, the dog, and I are all in this together. I'll give you more details of the trip later on.
Anyhow, I have packing lists up the wazoo and thought I was ahead of the game. Now, I'm in a panic about making sure that we have everything that we could need for THIRTY-ONE days. How can I possibly bring enough books to keep Gavin's need to read satisfied for a whole month? How many stuffed animals can Gabriella cram into her bunk? How many shirts does Don have that are still relatively stain-free? And how many cases of tranquility-inducing dog treats will we need to assure that Bernie won't hurl all over the back seat? I guess that I just have to trust that whatever I bring will be fine and that a Target will magically appear when I need one. They do have Target in Montana, don't they?