On the Road Again

Well, not quite yet. But, at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow, Sunday the 18th, we will officially hit the road again and start our around the world trip!! Woohoo! As you can see, we've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging while home this summer, but you can now rest easy because today marks our return to blogging. We plan to blog as much as possible over the next 5 or so months of traveling, at least as much as time and internet/power connections warrant. First we'll get you caught up on what we've been up to and give some updates about our upcoming trip.

We'll go all the way back to New Zealand, if that's okay with you, since we never got around to telling you about our last couple days on the North Island. We basically drove around the Coromandel Peninsula, stopping at a few beaches and lookouts along the way. It was surprisingly nice and beautiful with excellent beaches. We'll have to come back sometime when the weather is warmer and we can enjoy the water.

Cathedral Cove

Okay now back to the US. We've had a really good summer. It's been busy, hectic at times, but all in all a really good time. We had 3 weddings, a bachelor party golf weekend at Callaway Gardens, a trip up to Washington DC to visit Steph's brothers who are hiking the Appalachian Trail, a weekend in Destin, a long road trip out to Colorado for my sister's wedding that included rafting, camping, and visiting Mt. Rushmore, plus lots of trips to Newnan to see Steph's family and to Jasper to see mine. In between all of that I did manage to work full-time, which turned out really great as it gave me something to do and some much-needed cashflow. Steph, despite not working, somehow managed to stay really busy (or so she claims) with getting our visas and vaccinations together for our trip, renting out our condo again, and of course lots of shopping. Here's some photos from our summer...

the Hollister clan in DC (Ryan had a swollen eye from poison ivy, hence the uni-bomber look)

Arlington Cemetery - one of our favorite sites in DC

The last week we've been in full-out planning/getting ready mode. Some last-minute vaccinations and visa applications had us pretty stressed, but it's all taken care of and we are ready to go! You may remember that we originally planned to fly to Mexico on the 15th, but quickly realized we weren't going to be ready in time. So, we moved around a few flights and now will fly from LA to Mexico on the red-eye on the 19th, arriving on the 20th. Since we had been postponing everything, we also didn't get around to buying flights to LA far enough in advance, hence the 5:30 a.m. flight tomorrow (hey, it saved us at least 150 bucks). We'll get to spend a couple days in LA visiting Steph's Uncle Bean and then we'll be on the road again.

One of the most common questions we are asked about our trip is, 'How do you pack for a trip like this?' 'Lots of layers' is how we normally respond, but we thought we'd go through our entire packing list just because I'm sure you'll love to read it. First of all, we have these big travel backpacks with detachable day-packs and straps that can be zipped up when checked onto a plane. Mine is bigger than Steph's, so that's all I'm taking, with the plan to carry-on my daypack for flights. Steph is taking her travel backpack plus a huge tote bag to carry-on. That's it. Everything fits, with a surprisingly good amount of room to spare. That's not necessarily a good thing since it takes away my best argument for Steph not to buy something (and there will be plenty of "somethings"). Also, pretty much all of our clothes will go into "packing cubes", which help organize and keep similar items in one place. They are great for packing, but we'll have to see how it goes when clothes start getting dirty and the packing cubes are less than full. Anyways, on to the list...

Steph's Clothes
shorts
bermuda shorts
jeans
jean capris
leggings
2 pair athletic shorts
pajama pants
sleep shorts
athletic pants
3 short-sleeve t-shirts
5 short sleeve shirts
2 long-sleeve shirts
3 tank tops
2 camisols
cardigan
dryfit pullover
long-sleeve baselayer shirt
3 dresses
light jacket
rain jacket
Merrell hiking shoes
Chaco flip-flops
Flats
Bathing suit
3 pair mid-length socks
3 pair short socks
"warm and fuzzy" fleece socks
2 bras
2 sports bras
9 pair underwear
fleece earwarmer headband

Adam's clothes
jeans
REI Adventures khaki pants
2 pair REI shorts (khaki and dark gray)
hiking shorts
bathing suit
athletic shorts
rain jacket
Serious Fun hoodie (for job back in NZ)
lightweight fleece-like jacket
long-sleeve baselayer shirt
long-sleeve t-shirt
7 t-shirts
polo shirt
7 pairs underwear
5 pair short socks
long hiking socks
Chaco flip-flops
Merrell hiking shoes

Miscellaneous

Samsung netbook + charger + protective sleeve

Panasonic ZS6 camera + charger + case

iPod Touch + charger cable

Zune + charger cable

2 pair headphones

Olympus waterproof camera + charger

small flashlight

travel plug adapter

small multi-tool (pliers, scissors, knife, screwdrivers, etc.)

spork

combination padlock

pens

duct tape (wrapped around a pen)

electrical tape

2 travel sheets
2 stuff sacks (for dirty clothes)
2 mesh laundry bags
Ziplock freezer bags
2 inflatable pillows
3 small Kleenex packs
Wet Wipes travel pack
face cleaning wipes
2 eye masks
hair brush
dual-voltage hair dryer
hand towel
washcloth
cosmetics
earplugs
USB flash drive 1GB
2 Tide wash bags
2 water bottles
Steripen Traveler (water purifier)
coffee filters (for pre-filtering water before purifying)
hair bands
extra razor blades
sunglasses
travel towel
golf towel
Shammy towel
packing cubes
sewing kit
Tupperware container (to put crush-able items in)
nylon straps with buckles (to connect things to our bags with)
First Aid kit - medicine, band-aids, neosporin, etc.
Toiletries
all-in-one laundry sheets
sink laundry detergent
re-usable travel shopping bag
book
2 small notebooks
Bible

I'm sure there are a lot of things that we will ditch along the way, and probably a lot of things we wish we had brought or at least brought more of. Maybe when it's all said and done we'll revisit this list and go over what we did and didn't use. That's assuming you all enjoyed this list the first go-around...