Recent Activities

We are pet sitting in Staunton while friends do some pet sitting of their on in London. Between petting and feeding, we are still trying to finalize our travel preparations. We made a visit back to the house to make another pass at packing and I think we have now packed all that we can before really are ready to pull out of the drive way.


We made a last (?!) trip to Goodwill this morning to get rid of the last of the stuff that I'm too indecisive to let go of easily. there was also a visit to the storage unit to add a couple more boxes and a bit of clothes we aren't taking with us.

We've pretty well determined that Elizabeth and I will each have a backpack and a small carry on suitcase and three other, larger cases to check. We bought two new sets of luggage each with three bags in which the bag will nest. In one set of luggage, we are using all three bags but in the other only the small and medium sized are full. Thus, we've put the middle sized on in the large one and will take these two nested. This give us six bags to bring back goodies in while we only take five with us.

After driving to Arkansas, we fly to LAX to board the flight to Brisbane. E booked us on first-class to LAX because it is cheaper than paying for extra luggage and includes the necessary luggage allowance. The international flight allows two checked bag each so we are good all the way.

The problem now is that our car has gone to sleep. After a couple fits and starts on Saturday morning, it simply wouldn't start. No clicks, no uh-uh-uh trying to start and not getting anywhere, no nothing. So we called Geico and got a free tow to the shop. They have so far ruled out the battery and the starter relay switch. Now that the cheap stuff is off the table, the only things we have left are more expensive. We'll keep out fingers crossed for a cheap thing I haven't thought of yet to be the problem.

It is now less than 2.5 weeks until we leave the Valley. Sitting at our friends house and tapering off on spending time in the office, it is beginning to feel like we're already our retired thing. By the way, it feels great in case you are wondering.