Hey Everyone, Hannah and I have been busy packing, finalizing some reservations, planning and taking care of all those last minute details! Yesterday, we also decided to set up this blog and update it throughout our trip to keep everyone up to speed on our (hopefully) exciting adventures. We leave on Wednesday morning for NYC and will get to Dublin, Ireland at 9:00 AM on June 12th. We will be there for 2 days and then head for Scotland. More later when we actually have some news...... :-) Mary [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ahhhhhh yes...one week prior to Botswana departure and there is much to be done. First things first! We had our second orientation today- and it was long, but informative and great. :) We actually got our plan tickets and Dr.Pillay laughed and said that should start to amp us up. Because it's been finals week and things have been due, EVERYONE has been drained. We needed a good pick-me-up. ;) Plane ticket did the trick. YES! We are supposed to blog (academically) about our initial thoughts of Botswana- what we think it'll look like, what our experiences will be like, etc...it's [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, the Dunns are almost ready to hit the road! We've spent the past week packing and adding things to our growing "to-do" list. Tony and I have two different packing philosophies: Tony's is- minimalist packing is best. Mine is- pack everything including the kitchen sink!! We're doing pretty well to find a happy medium! We'll post our next travel blog after we've seen Mt. Rushmore. See you then!! [View Full Entry]

---

---

After driving to Cincinnati, getting about 17 immunizations (ok, 4, but it felt like 17), surviving a power outage and some major storms, and getting about 900 errands done, I am finally ready to go on the journey! I leave from Cincy at 10:30, then my big flight is Chicago-Beijing at 1:30 CST. So scary! One of my errands in the last few days was to get a new camera, and here are my first published photos... one of my feelings about being up at 5:30 a.m. (booo), and one about my feelings about setting up my new camera (ahh... I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Huron, Ohio. A sleepy town nestled along Lake Erie. A lake among the Great Lakes, the Earth's largest supply of fresh water. I pray we don't fuck it up. Moving to China to teach English. The countdown begins to launch date. I am eager to trounce around Hong Kong. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The new face of Mulberry Jeans. Coming soon to WalMart near you. Some styles available at select Big Lots. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Editorial Note As we begin this day, we'd like to thank you, our readers, friends, and family for your good thoughts and wishes during our voyage. Your messages -- whether sent through the blog comments, or phoned or emailed to us individually -- have given us cheer and encouragement and helped us a lot. As primary writer, I apologize for the entries that had too much unexplained airplane jargon. I only realized rather late in the trip that our readers include many more non-pilots than pilots, and I probably should have left out some of that stuff or taken more time [View Full Entry]

---

---

For those who can't wait.... Box Scores Three more states (Iowa to Illinois to Ohio), two flight legs, one lost hour as we are finally back in Eastern Time 266 + 241 miles -- a total of 507 miles was our achievement today. 287 miles to go. Our sights will be fixed on home tomorrow. Fort Dodge IA - Morris IL - Marysville OH The storms we had been trailing for the last few days moved through the Fort Dodge area on Friday night, and left an open path for home, with more clear flying weather than we had seen for [View Full Entry]

---

---

12th May. We arrived in Cleveland on the overnight bus from Washington. This was to be the starting point of our trip around lake Erie. Luckily we were able to check in to our hotel early and have a bit of a rest as the bus trip had been full of stops where we had to get off the bus and back on again so we didn't get a lot of sleep. We then went to Cleveland's main attraction, the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. It is a huge collection of memorabilia from all styles and eras of music. There [View Full Entry]

---

---

The 20th Annual Bigfoot Expo, Much Ado About Dayton, and other stories from Ohio I flew into Dayton International Airport on a rainy Thursday night. The flight went quickly as I had a deep conversation with someone truly on my level. We talked about her stuffed animals, she kindly introduced me to an otter named Rico and I briefly met Cali, the bear, but he spent most of his time in the luggage bin. It’s not often you can really talk to someone on an airplane, so when you find yourself next to a 10 year old girl holding a stuffed [View Full Entry]

---

---