Day before Departure?

It is as far as I know now; Nancy is out with her friends tonight and it seems like there are a few things that might delay our leaving. One is that one of our sleeping pads sprung a leak and had to be replaced. The provider is FedExing one to us for delivery tomorrow morning. Looks like we won't be pushing off at the crack of dawn; probably more like 11:00-ish. Good for a short day, anyway.

Another is a few things that still need to go to storage. Looks like we'll have time in the morning.

No, REI is not officially sponsoring our trip, although to look at our gear you might think they had. They do wish us well, and the Buford store will probably see a precipitous dropoff in their annual sales after we leave. Sorry about that. If you have never seen REI, or have never gone to one of their stores, I recommend you check it out (www.rei.com). The staff are friendly and, what's really important, they know what they are talking about. Cat and Drew, thanks for all your help in getting us ready to go. Augie, maybe we'll see you in Kansas!

For everyone who knows the real reason for our selecting April 22 as our departure day, it might not be apparent that it is also Earth Day. Sheer coincidence. The real reason was so that I could go to Macon to take the PE exam, which I did today. I feel very good about it; in particular, I feel like the preparatory class I took at Georgia Tech was instrumental (see http://www.pe.gatech.edu/conted/servlet/CEHome). Chris Franklin, you have little to worry about.

Greg Noah and Chris Palmer loaned me their books for use during the exam, for which I am grateful; I will send someone by the office Monday to return them to you. Thank you.

Adam Smith, Kurt Mueller, Chad Oelstrom, Jenni Olivo, and Debbie Young, thanks for your advice on how to approach the test. It worked very well. I'll let you know if it worked well enough in 10-12 weeks.

The reason we haven't blogged lately is because we've been dealing with deep issues, like the clogged sewer lateral from our house (now NOT our house). That lovely circumstance presented itself late Sunday night when the downstairs . . . ahem . . . COMMODE wouldn't flush very fast. On a hunch, I looked outside at the cleanout (which, from experience, I had learned not to cap very tightly); sure enough, it was overflowing there. Better there than inside.

Investigation revealed roots. Same as 2002, when the roots were removed but the line was not repaired. The line got repaired this time, but not before there was a backhoe and a large heap of dirt on the driveway next to the yawning hole where the sewer line goes. All just two days before closing.

To their credit, the new homeowners (who shall remain anonymous for their privacy) handled this news with remarkable calm. I'm glad that we could resolve it for them before we left; they are a very nice couple and I would have felt awful if this had happened AFTER we had left. Fortunately, this time, the problem was corrected at its root (pardon the pun) - the pipe was excavated and repaired. It should not recur.

OK, now, this should mark the first in a long line of daily blog entries. IF, that is, technology is on our side. We'll see tomorrow night, from lovely Fort Yargo State Park, near Winder, GA. DAY ONE IS HERE!