August 4, 2009
9:24pm Phoenix
9:54am Delhi

Wow and so it begins. I wish I could have written a thousand times before now but this is the first moment I’ve had with two seconds free for anything other than packing, sorting, discarding, and frantically scraping all the necessary details and major factors together to make this trip happen. It is tragic that so many moments were lost without being recorded, lived without being marked and thus without being remembered, but I guess that is the nature of this sort of beast and if there is another way, this wasn’t my time to get to see it.

We made a lot of mistakes in preparing for this trip, I see that now. I guess they weren’t mistakes in that we had a right choice and we chose the wrong one, more in that we had no idea that this monster was so big and so demanding. There was just so much STUFF to be dealt with, despite our best efforts to pare it all down (which we did do pretty darn good), there was still so much, too much. The smartest thing to have happened was mom suggesting we just get a storage unit and us finally agreeing for simplicity. Suddenly $800 something didn’t seem like so much to spend. Further than that even, knowing what I know now, I’d pay the double to have gotten the unit in Tucson and an air-conditioned one at that. It would have saved us SO much time and SO much headache and I really regret that we didn’t do it that way.

The past week or week and a half has been marked by nothing but frenzy. I so fell short of my goal/idea that I’d actually have it all done with two weeks post-work to spare just hanging out and enjoying the last of the time in Tucson. There was not a single moment of hanging out or relaxing or enjoying anything. Even the hockey party, it was hard to relax and just have a good time in the midst of all the craziness. Still it was a really neat experience to see someone put on that kind of a gesture for us and then to raise $1200 to boot!

But everything else is just this hazy, terrible, frantic blur and I wish I could take it all back, the last 3 months, the last 6 months, the last 9 months, and do it over again differently. I was too lazy; all those times I told myself I’ll just relax and take it easy and knew that I should be doing other stuff and wasn’t…if even just a fraction of those I had gotten off my rear end and been truly productive instead of messing around a lot of panic could have been spared for these last couple of weeks and I would have traded that a million times over. I know it’s too late to worry or care about that now for this trip, but for any future similar endeavors or as counsel for anyone who might follow in similar footsteps, it certainly goes as worth saying.

The problem with this trip though has always been its limitlessness. The lack of boundaries was paralyzing; even with more time, the lists never would have been done. There was always, always, always, always more to be done, researched, read, written, watched, investigated. Perhaps there was no other way; things were bound to be misplaced, lost, forgotten, too late, too little. Perhaps it could have been worse and maybe this wasn’t so bad. It’s tough to say. All I know is it was insanity that I wish hadn’t gone the way it did, and that is rare.

Yet here we are. First class seat (pod) on a dark 777 American Airlines airplane India-bound. Holy freakin cow who actually thought someday we’d be here? I didn’t! Even for all the daydreaming, the planning, the charting, the mapping, the researching, all of it, it was always in the end completely and utterly unfathomable, incomprehensible, unbelievable. The truth is, it still is. It is nothing short of surreal; I can’t believe that we’ll be stepping off this plane any more than I can believe we stepped onto it. Can’t believe that we left our mothers behind, including our motherland and country, and that, if things go according to “plan”, the vortex time warp we have just voluntarily stepped into.

Three years. The only thing that makes the whole thing a little more stomachable is the relative comparison to entering the military – at least we are not going into direct and mortal danger. You would think so, the way some people act. But the fact of the matter is, when it gets too big or too overwhelming or too unknown or too scary, that’s the truth of it – it’s one big beautiful amazing trip that we are going to be a part of for so long because we will be so ENGAGED and so AMAZED and so BUSY with awesomeness…and not being sentenced to a probable violent death in some warzone.

I’m not sure what it is that makes the scope of the thing so much for people to be able to handle or relate to. Is it the time? Is 3 years really that long? Doesn’t seem so; seems to me that would go by in the blink of an eye. Is it the distance covered? I just don’t know. It boggles my mind sometimes now too, but it’s one of those things I think has been handed to me by nurture; were I left wholly to my own perspectives and devices, it would (and does) seem natural and obvious to me. Not too sure why so many of the mainstream people seem to have their heads turned by it. I can certainly understand the appeal of staying in one place now; but not to the point of actually doing it. At least…not yet. Not before or without having done, you know, the other side of it.

But at any rate, we’re going. Tonight/tomorrow we will end up in Delhi, India, step foot into the wild and woolies that we’ve been anticipating and fearing and dreading and looking forward to for so long. I am scared of the first night, getting to the/a hotel, but after that, I feel confident and like I will be able to get my bearings and carry on with ease. I feel GREAT about our packs and how light we will end up traveling. We did REALLY good on that part. We look sleek and slick and like stay the heck away from us we ain’t your stinkin target. This is everything it’s cracked up to be, I know that already without having even jumped yet into the chaos. Once we get there and ditch the “nice” clothes, we -or at least I, not sure bout Ray yet- will be able to consolidate to one backpack and be hands-free and swift on our feet.

I look forward to the sparkling beaches of Thailand; they feel like my safe haven calling my name to reward us after many long weeks and months traveling, traveling, traveling. Before that, right now I am just eagerly anticipating a few days of rest, relaxation, recuperation, and recovery in the hotel room with no demands or tasks or to-do’s left available to do on my head.

And now, it is almost 10p my time and I feel like I haven’t slept really in three or four weeks and I’m about ready to get back on my feet so I’m going to start now. We’ve got like 10 more hours to go before arrival thankfully, so that will be a great chance to get started without giving up any of our precious Asia time. It’s hard to imagine now with three years stretched before us, but a part of me knows this will go fast, faster than I’d ever imagine, just as the time in Tucson and all the time preparing seems to have gone now that it’s all over. There is no stepping in the same river once the river has gone past. I need some sleep to make sense of it while it’s here.

Cross your fingers big time that there will be someone from Cottage Yes Please waiting for us at the airport. That’s all I ask for at this point and I will be one happy, content camper.

Life is… well life is about to be Real again. THIS is my “real world”.

Come check out photos of the flight and all the vaccinations, parties, packing, and incredible parts of our long Pre-trip Journey.