B U T T E R F L I E S

It's Saturday. I leave on Wednesday.

I'm trying to get my apartment packed up today...every last morsel. I picking up a UHaul truck shortly to deliver my oh-too-many possessions to my sister tomorrow.

My family is having a little send off lunch tomorrow for me.

Monday, my mom and I are making a quick trip to Idaho Springs for a short get away.

Tuesday - anxiety.

Wednesday - adios!

The nervousness has begun. I think it started to set in last night or today for sure. Almost everything is in boxes or in my little backpack.

On Friday I got a dose of Guatemalan Spanish and oh how I failed! I tried to make a hotel reservation for my first couple of nights in Guatemala. Just getting a good phone connection was a challenge. Then the call didn't go through. Then the person who answered hung up on me. I didn't know if I had reached the hotel or a private residence.

When I finally got through, and was informed that I would have to speak Spanish, I gave it my best - un person, cuanto cuesta?, por favor, un dormitorio...and although I think this Guatemalan understood me, I could not understand him.

I couldn't understand the price. I didn't know how to say "October." And I knew I was unsuccessfull at making the reservation when the gentlemen never took my name...even though I asked if he needed it.

And when I hung up - reservation-less - I knew I was in deep shit. I am so screwed. And that's probably when the butterflies set in.

In any case, my boyfriend called the next and made the reservation for me. He struggled with it a little, but the gentlemen did ask for a name.

So needless to say, it's gonna be tricky.

Thank you again to all of you for your constant support and encouragement as I worked to pull this off. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, ideas, contacts.

I will do my best to stay in touch and update my blog regularly.

"The trick is not to rid your stomach of butterflies, but to make them fly in formation."

Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Book of Readings

A Departure...

I'm sure everyone has noticed that my departure date keeps moving back.  I'm leaving now in mid-October.

I am R E A D Y to go!

I have a couple of "events" that I am attending which have delayed my departure.

I decided several months ago to go to Alicia's wedding in Idaho, which is this weekend.  She asked me to be a bridesmaid, and I just didn't want to miss her wedding.  It was basically the difference of a month, so I decided to stay to go to her wedding.  I met Alicia in 7th grade and she has been one of my dearest friends ever since.

The second event is my grandma's back surgery.  You may recall that she had back surgery last October.  I stayed with her for about three weeks after her surgery to care for her during her recovery.  According to her doctors, she has reaped maximum benefit from the surgery she had in October.  She has decided to have a second surgery to further repair damage to her vertebrae.  She turned 79 on Saturday.

My grandma's surgery is September 2nd.  My mom will be there (Oklahoma) a few days before the surgery through September 17th.  I will get there September 14th and stay through the end of October.

I'll then be visiting my dad for about a week.  The coming home and (cross my fingers) leaving about a week later.

So that's the status.

I managed to save my targeted amount.  Yippee!

I need to buy a couple more pieces of clothing for my trip.  Other than packing my apartment and taking care of a few small banking items, I'm ready to go.

I go back and forth between anxiety and confidence.  But like the stylist who butchered my hair today said, "Isn't that what life is about...living your dream?"

I had a dream...

...that it was the night before my departure, and I hadn't made a hotel/hostel reservation! I was so mad at myself! I couldn't believe I had overlooked that very important detail!

Luckily, I still have 11-12 weeks to handle that!

I "mock-packed" my backpack last week. That was an interesting exercise. It weighed 20 lbs, which is 16% of my body weight. Backpacking experts advise that a person in good health should be able to carry 20% of his or her body weight. Those in intermediate health should be able to carry 25% of their body weight, and experienced and well conditioned backpackers (which I'm not!) can carry 35% of their body weight.

For me, this is how that would breakdown:
% of body weight=pack weight
20%=24 lbs.
25%=30 lbs.
35%=42 lbs.

So, how big is my pack? My pack is a 2500 cubic inch women's Kelty Redwing. Its empty weight is 3 lbs 1 oz.

Here's is a picture of it:

I'm not 100% convinced that it is big enough, but I am 100% convinced that it would behoove me to try to make it big enough, i.e. pack light!

When I was 20 I took a 3 month trip through Eastern Europe. I thought that trip with a $3000 budget was gonna be my trip around the world...oh how foolish I was, in more ways than one. I had a HUGE pack, probably about three times the size of this one. It probably weighed 50 lbs., but felt like 90 lbs.! It was like traveling with a whole other person, you know. When I would get on the train, I took up two seats - one for me and one for my pack. That drew lots of attention. I could hardly lift it, and there was absolutely no way I could put it in an overhead bin on a train or bus without help from someone. Not exactly the picture of self-sufficiency!

The only time the size of that pack came in handy in all of those three months was when I sat it in front of me on a park bench in Romania and slumped over it to sleep all day after I had forced myself to stay up all night when I found myself stranded in a train station. A bird shit on me that day too.

How to Shit Your Way Around the World

This is the oh-so-enticing title of the book I'm reading. It is interesting, disgusting, and at times repulsive. I can only hope that I don't encounter some of the toilets (if you could call them that) and parasites described within.

Here's something I would especially like to avoid:

"Cleansing oneself after defecation, throughout South Asia, involves...water...brought to the latrine site in a pottery, metal or plastic vessel, called a bodna that has a spout, much like the spout of a teapot, and holds two to three liters of water. The use of this vessel is restricted to this one purpose. The...cleaning of the anal region occurs immediately after defecation. Water is poured from the bodna into a cupped left hand and then swiftly carried to the anal region. This process involves some skill and is taught to small children at an early age. After [the left hand is] rubbed with soil...the individual pours water from the bodna onto the left hand for rinsing."

Dr. Bilqis Hoque, et al., Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1995)

No thank you!

Goodbye, Neon.

<----What my car probably looked like at one time.

Ah...the end of an era. My longest relationship so far is over. 11 great years of service over in an instant. A brief little warning - a tiny illuminated image of an old-fashioned oil can shining ever so brightly on the dark console, just below it evidence of 177,000+ miles that I hoped would keep on going for another couple of years. But no, it's now a money pit.

We've had road trips, quick trips, stressfully crossed the border in Tiajuana, been to Crested Butte in blizzard conditions, had a run-in with a deer on the way to Oklahoma, almost hit three deers on the way to Telluride, had a couple of fender benders, flat tires, never snow tires!, lost hubcaps, had the gas tank ripped open in the middle of Kansas, had the window broken on the very first day we were united, were almost ripped apart after a few years one day in the parking lot of my 14th Street apartment, were ripped apart overnight just over a year in the Highlands but reunited three days later missing contents and an ignition switch, we recently hauled the 3 largest men on earth plus 2 more men from LoDo to SoBo, camped out in Puerta Penasca, have been without a radio for 5 years or more, new side-view mirrors thanks to the deer and Aunt Diane & Uncle Wes, new-used radiator fan thanks to Dad and an Okie junkyard, ah the list goes on...

Thank you so much Grandma for co-signing the loan for me when I was 19. Thank you so much Mom for secretly giving Grandma money for one payment in case I missed a payment. Thank you Mom, Dad, Grandma for helping me make my payments (and keep my credit good!) when I couldn't.

I got $225 for it and it's bound for the scrapyard for recycling.

Probably a blessing in disguise. Now I don't have to decide whether to sell it or store it for my trip, but I'll be hoofin' it between now and then!

Goodbye, Neon.

6 months to go! (I hope)

Well, with my tentative departure set for July - that gives me 6 months to go! I have a lot to do in the next 6 months. (Check out my to do list at the bottom of the page. Let me know if I'm forgetting anything!)

Today I signed up for "travel registration" online with the U.S. State Department. Basically this will allow me to register with the U.S. embassy in each country I visit without having to actually visit the embassy's office. I provide details on my itinerary and travel plans. The embassy will alert me if there are any emergencies. The embassy will also email travel advisories pertaining to my itinerary. See....? Safety first!

I have been researching volunteer work in Belize to start off my trip with. I thought it would be nice to have a "destination" when I first start my trip where someone is expecting me. I hope this will also provide an opportunity to ask questions and get tips for further travel in the region. If you know of any good organizations operating in Central American, please let me know.

I hope to have all of my money saved by July. I need to save $7000 more. This will give me a $55 a day budget. Can one see the world on $55 a day??? We will soon find out. In some countries $55 won't cut it. In others, I would really have to live it up to spend that much. The idea is that I won't spend $55 a day in those countries and use that money when I arrive in more expensive locations.

What if I don't have all of my money saved by July? Well then I will wait. I want to be prepared mentally, physically, and financially. I'm not too impatient about this. I've already waited nearly 2.5 years. I can probably stand another few months. But if I can't.... I will probably go with what I have and charge the rest at the tail end of my trip. I do plan to have a little money saved to come back to so I can get an apartment fairly quickly. Another incentive for a July departure: I want to make it back in time for the "Great Wilson Lake Escape" which will probably be in July of 2009!

I hope you enjoy my blog...Please email me with any comments or questions or concerns!

0% prepared

I had lunch with an Indian friend of mine from work earlier this week. He said I'm "0% prepared" for my trip. He wanted to know if I had contact numbers written down, if I knew which cities I wanted to visit in each country, if I knew what I wanted to see in every city, did I have visas, etc., etc.

He suggested getting a notebook or binder and making a table of contents listing each country, then city. Within the notebook start gathering information by country. Figure out what I want to see in each country so I don't forget anything. I agreed. Wouldn't it be awful if I left India and forgot to see the Taj Mahal?

I've been so focused on just saving, saving, saving that I haven't really done much planning. I have a rough itinerary laid out but I haven't throughly checked into visas and vaccinations...

I picked up a second job again after about 4 months off from the two-job gig. I'm working in an upscale restaurant a couple of doors down from the bar I was working at. I'm hoping that I can keep focused and only have to work two jobs for about 4 more months. That would be sometime in April. I should have enough money saved by then. I'll probably quit or cut back on hours there and still keep my day job. I'd like to save a few thousand dollars extra to have when I return. I'll probably quit all jobs about three weeks or a month before I leave so I have time to mentally and physically prepare for my departure.

This weekend I am going to get my passport photos taken and send of my application for renewal.
Publish Post

my first blog

Last night Bike Mike filled me in on the amazing world of Google and helped me cross one item of my "to do before I take my trip list." I needed to figure out how I was going to keep my friends and family included in my trip and a way to let them in on my whereabouts. So this blog will do just that.