Countdown To “Dog Days of Summer” 2014 Tour

In a simple twist of fate, our big cross country trip just got a wee bit closer! We had planned to leave towards the end of June, but, our property manager found a nice couple to rent our condo for a couple months while we’re gone, and they have to move in on June 11th. And that means we have to be gone, gone, gone, on the 10th! Whoaaaa…..that sucked up two whole weeks of prep time!!

I can roll with the punches, right? Yea baby! And so, I made myself a giant sized gin & tonic, and started freakin’ packin’! And I’ve paused just long enough to make a batch of Jell-O Shooters….and to blog!

So much to do in the house to make it “rent-worthy.” Not only have we been procrastinating on a few minor repairs, but we also have had to empty the bedroom and coat closets, lock up our business and personal files, empty a good portion of kitchen cabinets. Oh, and did I mention, I’m also having to write a somewhat long thesis on how everything operates in the house? Yea, we’ve got some fancy shmancy hi-tech window shades and ceiling fans, and some other weird peculiar thingies in our place that need explanations.

And then there’s Fiona. We’ve had to fast-track taking care of some items with her. We just removed the front TV (more headroom, less head-banging, easier access to the storage compartments that were behind the TV). We’re having our batteries checked on Tuesday (having some charge/voltage issues). I ordered a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) that should arrive on Wednesday. We’ll be removing the second row seats today or tomorrow. We were hoping to have some bug screens made for the back doors and the sliding door, but we’ve run out of time for that. Maybe we’ll figure something out while we’re on the road, and preferably, before we get eaten alive when we get to “bug country.”

And then there’s us. And us packing. Mark and I are masters at packing lite. This trip is a little more tricky, ’cause we’re gonna hit a real variety of weather conditions. We need to pack for unbearable heat and humidity, for rain (foreign to us So-Cal folks), and for colder weather as we get into late September and October. We also need to pack stuff for swimming and cycling. Swimming’s easy (suit, cap, goggles). Cycling is not so easy when you consider our lack of space (shoes, helmets, three or so cycling outfits that get so sweaty you can only wear once before washing).

It’s all super exciting and fun. Could use those extra couple weeks we thought we had. But, then again, we’d probably have just procrastinated doing all this stuff until the last week anyway, so, it’s all the same!