What you do the day before a trip

And we leave tomorrow!

I don’t know if this is a good sign, but with 24 hours left to go, we seem to have everything taken care of.  Everything at home is ready to go, everything at work is set, and with any luck, there won’t be any last minute stuff to deal with.

Have we just done this enough now that we know what needs to get done and by when it needs to get done?  I mean, I hate to think that these trips of ours are becoming routine, because that’s the last thing they are, but maybe we have a “routine” in dealing with getting ready for them.  As I’ve mentioned before, Loraine’s the queen of the checklist, so we know what we need and what we have to do, and for once last year, I actually kept notes on what I had to do for work, making the preparations for this trip much easier. 

You know, there may be something to this whole “organizing” thing people keep telling me about after all!

Now, I guess, the hardest part is the waiting.  You know, the getting through the final day of work, then the going home and making sure (for the fifth time) that everything’s ready to go, and then the lying in bed wondering if you should be making sure (for the sixth time) that everything’s ready while at the same time being super excited because in just a few hours you’re off on another grand adventure.

In less than 24 hours from now, that waiting will be over.  We’ll walk into Sawyer International, our friends at the TSA will recognize us and ask us where we’re going this time, and before we know it, we’ll be wandering through downtown Chicago eating pizza and cookies and cornbread, and then getting on a very big plane to make our way across a very big ocean.

Wish us luck.

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There’s one thing I wanted to bring up, and that’s a strange coincidence I’ve noticed between Marquette and our trips to Europe--every time we fly over, it gets warm in Marquette.  I’m not kidding; in the cold summer of 2004, the only time it hit 80 for more than a day in a row was when we left.  In 2008, you guys had the 90s for three days while we were gone.  And during last year’s yucky summer, you had the 80s for almost a week while we enjoyed weather much like that in France.  And this year?  The 60s in October.

All I can say, I guess, is “you’re welcome”!

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And finally, the next post will probably pop up here Friday afternoon, Marquette time.  That'll be Friday evening in Bayeux, after we've romped around Chicago, driven three hours on a French freeway after not sleeping on the flight over, and after we've (hopefully) make a stop at one of our favorite bakeries in the whole world.


Feuilletines, here we come!!!