There is still so much to do to pack and plan before our July 25th departure. To stay sane, we like to reflect on the things we’ve already accomplished in the past few months:

1. We quit our jobs (a leave of absence from teaching for one of us, and just a straight up leave for the other), and finished school (2nd grade for one, and 5th grade for the other)
2. We found and bought a 31-foot Winnebago from a wonderful family, who used it for a similar experience almost a decade ago and were kind enough to show us some of the basics and even help us test it out at a local campground.
3. We found, bought and registered a great little”toad” car to flat tow behind us
4. We have a wonderful renter for our house
5. Doctors, dentists and vet visits are done for the year!
6. 3rd and 6th grade curriculum is all mashed up and (almost) ready to go!
7. We switched from Sprint to Verizon because it turns out that those map ads are true–Verizon covers way more of the country than Sprint.

And, over the past year, we saved about 70 percent of the money we’d hoped to, briefly debated whether it was enough and then realized we wouldn’t know until we were in the middle of it. So off we go, hoping our picky kids will learn to love whatever ends up on their plates.