Lots of exciting

I made my reservation for the ferry ride home today. The ship usually fills up quick at the end of the season so I decided to go ahead and book it. So here it is, my official leave date:

September 29th

Yessss.

My friend Lauren Looper is going to be coming back down with me, and she asked if we could leave a full day after the last day, so we could attend all of the end of the year festivities and not have raging headaches when we were traveling. I thought that was a good idea. So instead of leaving Monday then spending the night in Skagway, we're leaving Tuesday and starting the trip on the road about noon. Four hours isn't the end of the world. The huge plus to having Lauren come along (besides not be alone for the 3400 mile trip) is she is all about driving as long as possible. No sleeping time needed! One restriction will be if the gas stations in BC are open through the night, but that will only matter in the far north.

It is early, but here is a tentative travel schedule:

Sept 29 -Leave Juneau, start road portion
S. 30 & 31 - Driving Yukon and BC
October 1 - Arrive in Spokane
Oct. 1-6 - Stay in Spokane
Oct 6 or 7 -Leave for Illinois
October 9 or 10 - Arrive in IL!

Lauren was planning on flying to Chicago after she got back down to Seattle, so she was excited to change her plans and hop a ride with Kodak and I. I may need to make some alterations to my car (ie: add a luggage rack to the roof) but I'm not quite sure about all that. Now that I know how much room the cat takes up on a trip, I can load way more stuff in the inside. I have no idea how much stuff Lauren has.

The more exciting news in my world is that Dan is back from India! There was a mishap with his cell phone while he was there, but as of yesterday, I am no longer at the whim of the Indian telecommunications system/Dan's schedule/14.5 hour time delay! We can talk anytime we want to!

Also, Dan has made his reservation to see me, and August 9th can't get here soon enough! Ten days of Dan! It was such a great surprise that he would be staying that long :) I'm going to be a mess to put up with. Let me apologize in advance for my lack of concentration, fool-faced smiles coming from seemingly nowhere, and random spurts of happy jumping about - I really can't help myself.