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!