The Plan...

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Last Days...

Yesterday was Maria's last day at work... Carl was more efficient and finished on the 17th! To be fair, it took both of us quite a bit longer than we had hoped to finish up at work as we tried to leave things in a reasonable state! Of course, as Carl reminded Maria, she still has a week's worth of aerobics classes to teach before she is "really" done!!

First Steps

So here's the first part of the plan - get out of town!...

• Pack up the house
  
• Send the stuff we can't live without to Australia
  
• Store the rest
  
• Put the house on the market
  
• Outfit the truck into "touring" mode
  
• Commence!

Tour itinerary

Before we leave we are sending our type "A" personalities to Australia surface mail so once we actually get going we can hopefully "relax!" The plan is to spend a day or so with Carl's parents in Manhattan, Kansas making sure that everything is stored correctly and then leaving "civilization" for the great outdoors. Then we are packing the camping gear, bikes, hiking gear, National Park pass and adventurous spirit into the truck and starting off. The following is our high level plan...

• Colorado - ride Skyline drive on our bikes
  
• Canada - Banff and Lake Louise
  
• Pacific North West - Vancouver, Victoria Island, Washington and Oregon
  
• San Diego
  
• Desert South West - Grand Canyon
  
• Back to Kansas

Of course, there are many parks in between that we are also hoping to visit - Glacier, Yellowstone, Olympic, Cascade, Rushmore, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce - to mention a few!

The BIG Move

Hopefully once we have completed the National Park circuit Carl's visa will have been approved by the Australian Government and we can commence the next phase, getting us and the dog - Dawson - to the land downunder!

So... Step One!...

Sell the car.... Yes, if you have gotten this far you will remember that step one was "pack up the house..." Sometimes, things don't follow the plan... Maria was able to sell her car (left ) to a colleague at work... It was quite a story - the day before we submitted our resignations this colleague decided that we should sell him the car for his soon-to-be 16 year old... Both Carl and Maria wondered whether he was psychic!!...

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