Packing

April 23, 2007 - Our friends, Joyce and Wiley, had a wonderful photo on their Maine blog showing their driveway outside their home filled with all kinds of necessities they planned on loading in their camper. Each item had to be weighed as they needed to know the total weight of their camper.

Our bedroom, kitchen counter and table, and bathroom counters look like their driveway. We have been counting out medications, making certain they are in their original containers, lining up shoes, trying to decide which ones to take, checking on which shirts, blouses, and slacks we'll actually wear, and saving room for oleh-oleh (gifts) for our Indonesian family and friends. We had to purchase TSA locks for our luggage (locks that can be opened by customs personnel but that lock out everyone else).

The shuttle from Ocala to Orlando will cost us $34 each. We've asked Les and Eleanor, friends we met though church, to drive us to the shuttle pick-up point. There is so much to think about before leaving on this trip. Pool caretaker, someone to mow the lawn, and plant waterer. We have to hurricane-proof our home before we leave as the season begins June 1st. That means we removed everything from our patio or, with high winds, we could end up with all kinds of things floating in our pool or becoming missiles.

We leave May 1st at 4:30 pm, changing to Singapore Airlines in Newark, NJ. From there we fly to Singapore, changing planes in Singapore and flying on to Jakarta. Where's Jakarta, you might ask? I've found a map that will help locate us once we leave Ocala. We hope to visit our friends on Sulawesi and to take our daughter to Bali. As you will see, even Singapore is shown on this map. We are now getting very excited and once packing is done, we'll be even more thrilled. That's it for today.