Although we’re missing an ASU home game, surprisingly, we can watch the game on our flight to Seattle! Go Devils!
And…..we’re off! Cheers to 100 days of adventure 🍻
Packed to the gills! Our bags weighed in just underweight 😲 You’d think we were leaving for awhile!
See ya in about 14 weeks, house. Officially en route to a grand adventure!
Jen here—After a week of long hours at work to get everything done before we left, and then packing/cleaning after that (Scott did most of the latter two for us), leaving work yesterday certainly felt like the start of a huge re-set for us. Just a few more things to do this morning. T minus 3 hours!
We’re not snowbirds (yet?), but it seems like there are countless things you need to plan for when you’ll be gone from home for an extended period—like changing the backup batteries in your smoke detectors.
One of the few people we told about our early idea for this trip was Scott’s dad, Norm. He was a huge proponent for the idea—even when it seemed far fetched, and even when his care prevented us from taking the time. So tonight Scott paid homage to him at our local bar with our respective “the usual”
We had a great time celebrating our upcoming adventure with friends at Wren Sudhalle yesterday (with both friends that came and our friends that work there) and tonight on Zoom! Definitely ready to quit the planning part of this trip and actually start it. 6 days!
Welp, Scott managed to pick up a case of shingles and a cold on Monday—which is terrible timing given the number of tasks that remain before we leave. The shingles is especially frustrating, as he twice asked to add it to our slew of travel vaccinations, but was told he didn’t qualify for it yet".t
Wanna pop in and wish us luck on our upcoming AdventuresAroundThe.World?
We’re doing an informal “Goodbye-Don’t Die” zoom party on Sun Nov 17 at 5p AZ (4PT/7ET). No agenda—we just wanna say hi to people before we take off on this crazy-ass adventure! Bring a beverage.
Pulling audibles and changing your trip is not always easy. After several emails and a garbled call to South Africa, Jen figured out that South African Airways isn’t especially easy to work with when changing flights. So, Malaysia is out, more time (likely seeing wildlife) in South Africa is in.
Mozambique out, perhaps Malaysia in? 🤔
Due to civil unrest, we’re pulling the plug on the Mozambique/Eswatini leg of the trip. Continuing protests of a shady election have closed the roads to the Maputo airport and the border crossing with South Africa. We quickly devised a substitute visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but that plan is dependent on shifting several days’ worth of various reservations—including an expensive flight. We’ve inquired on that, but have yet to get a response.
Our visit to Mozambique is shaping up to be…interesting.
Jen here. So, I was messing around tonight and decided to try ChatGPT. By the end, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. What do YOU think is the over-under on this question? 🦒 👨
Tonight we finally completed our travel vaccinations for the trip. In addition to our final mpox shot, we also got a shot for cholera—as in, the beverage variety. The vaccine comes as a live-virus liquid you mix with water and quickly drink. Hence, the red solo cups… 😜😂
Ordered some basic business cards we can hand out to people who we meet or to anyone we want to direct to our website. Then they can contact us through the website. Much easier and safer than giving out our contact info to fun people we meet!
Registering with the US Dept. Of State - STEP
When we travel abroad, we always register our stays/travels with the US Department of State. So, just in case something happens while you’re in-country (conflict, weather disaster, etc.), the DOS knows where you might be and can get to you. It’s also a great way to get country information straight from the embassy, which would include any disaster/security alerts you’d want to know about. Both of us had to register separately, inputting 28 different places.
If things go as planned, we’ll spend time in 11 different time zones on this trip.
Africa definitely has a tipping culture. A recommendation from our Safari company was to start the safari with envelopes containing the tip for each guide to make it easier. You can add more or take away from that amount depending on the level of service. So I’ve created some of our tip envelopes.
One month from today we head out on this huge adventure! Still so much to do to get ready to go. And we both often vacillate between being excited and wondering WTH are we doing!