The preparations for the trip

Last time I wrote, the wheels were in motion for our long planned road trip and the date was rapidly approaching. The last three weeks were really grueling as we had to visit the embassies in DC one too many times until we finally got all the visas and info needed. We talked to at least half a dozen different people who have done a similar trip or know about the area in question to get us ready for all the stuff books and the internet doesn’t tell you about. We even got contacts in all but a couple of our destinations to have a point of contact and somewhere to stay. We spent over $600 in repairs and parts for the car, including a spare tire, to make sure we’ll be safe. We even bought a pepper spray for god’s sake! I bought a GPS and I’m taking my laptop with the Encarta World Atlas software to map our position constantly and we have about 10 maps of every country we’ll visit and a couple of books as well. I promise we will NOT get lost. We’re also taking with us our cell phones with international roaming for emergencies. We spent about $130 in Wal-mart and Sam’s Club to stock up some food, water and extra gear. I think we’re ready!

Did I mention we got the car? It was certainly what we were looking for. A 1995 Mazda Protégé with 129,000 miles on it. It runs great and, best of all, it bears a vigorous 1.5 liter motor promising to deliver over 35 miles per gallon at all times. That’s a relief since we have a lot to worry when talking about gas expenses.

Eventually, D-day came along. On Tuesday at 7am we departed. It was really surreal to think that we were finally loading up the stuff and departing towards this long-waited project. We had very little sleep the day before but plenty of time to rest on the way.