It’s hard to believe the trip is almost here. We’re mostly packed and the Home To-Do List is nearly complete. Sharon’s cousin Dustin is staying at the house while we are away so we did our walk-through with him. 2024 property taxes paid, 2023 income taxes have been filed as an extension and most bills put on autopay.

Our biggest pressure point this final week is making sure we have all of our documentation for the trip, both as hard copy and in the cloud. We use Dropbox for cloud storage and Evernote to manage our documents locally on our phones. We’ve learned over the years that you can’t always assume you’ll have internet access and sometimes you’ve got to get your hands on docs immediately. Evernote keeps a copy on local devices, password protected, of course. Hardcopies are being stored in an expandable file folder and we’ll keep it in our carryon luggage on our way to the ship.

We depart Dublin on Tuesday 1/16, flying to Denver and then on to Orange County, CA, where we will stay with our friends Ed and Deanna Fischermann for two nights in Dana Point. It’s been raining, sleeting and snowing here in Ohio so we’re eager for some nicer weather.

Saying goodbye to family and friends tugs on your heart strings, and we sadly lost our sweet kitty last week to a stroke, so our emotions have been on high alert for days.  We are grateful for having had 17 years with Shelby and that we were able to be with her in her final hours.