It seems that the worst time for your car to break down is typically when it happens, like when you are moving across country carrying all your worldly possession and leaving the country in three weeks; thanks Murphy! So we pulled into our first stop in Iowa on Sunday and just as we showed up in town our Trailblazer, all of the sudden, started making this awful stone crushing sound or as though a piece of iron was being slammed into the vehicle's drive shaft causing the axle to lock up and not move; we had never experienced any problem with the vehicle before that moment. We have taken it to a shop and they are going to have to replace the whole front differential and it may take over a week to do the work.
Thankfully, we had been driving two vehicles so we were able to move into just one. We are also very, very happy that it happened at a destination instead of in the middle of nowhere. It sort of sucks that the repair will take so long and that it is suck in Eastern Iowa and it needs to be in Nebraska; but we can figure something out about that. We keep everybody posted and hopefully this kind of excitement will subside.
P.S. In our absent mindedness we forgot some of our clothes that we need for Panama in our hotel in Indiana that they will be mailing to us. We do not appear to be making this trip very easy on ourselves!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
We're On Our Way
Finally, we are on our way to Panama! We finished at our jobs this past week and moved out of our apartment in Bethesda; it has been a long time coming, and we cannot believe that we are finally headed somewhere!
By yesterday, we had said our goodbyes to our apartment, Maryland and friends; signing off over a fantastic and enormous breakfast! We drove for all day, really only 10 hours (a little weak by our own standards), but we made it to our hotel in Gary, Indiana for the night. We have a ton of family and friends to visit over the next three weeks, and it is all starting today. Happy Easter!
To kick off, this morning, bright and early, we will be headed to Ashley’s Grandpa & Grandma McInroy's, outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa for brunch and as well as to spend Easter afternoon, then we will take off for Ashley’s Grandma & Grandpa Evenson's, in Osage, Iowa, for supper (about a 3hr drive). After two nights, we will head to our alma mater in Ames, Iowa to see some friends from college and stay for a couple of nights. Next, out of Iowa, we will be heading into Omaha to see Brandon's parents and some friends on Thursday and Friday.
Are you tired yet...? We will be…but there is more. Next weekend we will drive to Sioux Falls, South Dakota with Brandon’s family to see all his extended family and grandparents. After the weekend, it is back to Iowa; we will head to Greenfield, Iowa where we will visit Ashley’s dad and extended family for a couple of days. On Thursday, back to Omaha, we will make the final prep of our respective backpacks (the only things we will have for two years!) and then fly with nothing more than that on Saturday morning into Phoenix to see Ashley’s Mom & family. This will be followed by a long drive up to Flagstaff, and receive a frenetic greeting from her sisters to begin our, get this, WEEK long stay! Seven uninterrupted days, we have already explained to them how spoiled they are to have us visiting them for this long but we purchased the plane ticket before we had figured out how many stops we would be making along the way. Anyway, from Phoenix we will fly for staging to Miami for two days of intense Peace Corps pre-departure orientation before flying out to Panama. It will be a fast, very busy few weeks; but we are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family.
Seeing so many people…not to worry, we are prepared; we purchased an enormous pack of Airborne- and plan on downing it every couple of hours for the next couple of weeks!
By yesterday, we had said our goodbyes to our apartment, Maryland and friends; signing off over a fantastic and enormous breakfast! We drove for all day, really only 10 hours (a little weak by our own standards), but we made it to our hotel in Gary, Indiana for the night. We have a ton of family and friends to visit over the next three weeks, and it is all starting today. Happy Easter!
To kick off, this morning, bright and early, we will be headed to Ashley’s Grandpa & Grandma McInroy's, outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa for brunch and as well as to spend Easter afternoon, then we will take off for Ashley’s Grandma & Grandpa Evenson's, in Osage, Iowa, for supper (about a 3hr drive). After two nights, we will head to our alma mater in Ames, Iowa to see some friends from college and stay for a couple of nights. Next, out of Iowa, we will be heading into Omaha to see Brandon's parents and some friends on Thursday and Friday.
Are you tired yet...? We will be…but there is more. Next weekend we will drive to Sioux Falls, South Dakota with Brandon’s family to see all his extended family and grandparents. After the weekend, it is back to Iowa; we will head to Greenfield, Iowa where we will visit Ashley’s dad and extended family for a couple of days. On Thursday, back to Omaha, we will make the final prep of our respective backpacks (the only things we will have for two years!) and then fly with nothing more than that on Saturday morning into Phoenix to see Ashley’s Mom & family. This will be followed by a long drive up to Flagstaff, and receive a frenetic greeting from her sisters to begin our, get this, WEEK long stay! Seven uninterrupted days, we have already explained to them how spoiled they are to have us visiting them for this long but we purchased the plane ticket before we had figured out how many stops we would be making along the way. Anyway, from Phoenix we will fly for staging to Miami for two days of intense Peace Corps pre-departure orientation before flying out to Panama. It will be a fast, very busy few weeks; but we are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family.
Seeing so many people…not to worry, we are prepared; we purchased an enormous pack of Airborne- and plan on downing it every couple of hours for the next couple of weeks!
Monday, March 3, 2008
They love us!!
They really, really do love us! We have FINALLY been officially invited to join Peace Corps service in Panama! We are BEYOND excited- Panama is a beautiful country with modern amenities (for those not-so-campy travelers), without the mass quantities of tourists or over-manicured resorts.
We have been told that we will be living 2-16 hours outside of Panama City (however we are not sure if this is by foot, boat or car) and living either in a village or with an indigenous tribe. If we (like 70% of our fellow Peace Corps Panama Volunteers) end up in a village, we will be living in either a cinder-block house with concrete floor, or an adobe house with a zinc roof- just like the locals. On the other hand, if we are like the other 30% of our fellow Panama PC Volunteers, we will be living with an Indigenous tribe in either a grass hut or a bamboo hut on stilts overlooking a river.
We have not been told what area of the country we will be living in yet, whether or not we will have running water, phone service, or the internet for that matter. We will certainly do our best to update this blog as often as possible with postings, information, status updates, and of course-everybody's favorite- photos!
We would love for everyone to write us back and leave posts up for us to read- as I'm sure that we will (eventually) get home-sick.
We have been told that we will be living 2-16 hours outside of Panama City (however we are not sure if this is by foot, boat or car) and living either in a village or with an indigenous tribe. If we (like 70% of our fellow Peace Corps Panama Volunteers) end up in a village, we will be living in either a cinder-block house with concrete floor, or an adobe house with a zinc roof- just like the locals. On the other hand, if we are like the other 30% of our fellow Panama PC Volunteers, we will be living with an Indigenous tribe in either a grass hut or a bamboo hut on stilts overlooking a river.
We have not been told what area of the country we will be living in yet, whether or not we will have running water, phone service, or the internet for that matter. We will certainly do our best to update this blog as often as possible with postings, information, status updates, and of course-everybody's favorite- photos!
We would love for everyone to write us back and leave posts up for us to read- as I'm sure that we will (eventually) get home-sick.
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