Well, this is it. Our last day. And of course, when I wanted to sleep in, I couldn’t, so I got up and did stuff. By 8:00 I was out the door in search of a supplement that I normally take as a liquid, but didn’t feel like I wanted to take as a liquid on the trip. It took me three tries to find it so that took a chunk out of my morning.
As I drove back into our neighborhood, I saw our neighbor Kevin (and longtime friend) was in his front yard so I stopped and asked if he could help me with my luggage tracker tags.
He came right over and brought Suzy the dog with him. She was very excited to see our house.
I’m so glad Kevin was available to help because setting up the tags was well beyond my technical expertise, thanks to the fact that they weren’t designed to work with my phone. Kevin was so patient and in the end he got it all working.
It’s actually been a pretty chill day. Walter mowed the yard for the last time. I found time to soak my feet and attend to my toenails. I had Walter’s suitcase all ready to go by midmorning and it weighed less than 50 pounds! Not by much, mind you. There are quite a few books in there.
I went over my lists, wanting to be sure I hadn’t left anything out before closing up my larger suitcase. The carry-ons are ready to go, but I guarantee mine is over the weight limit because it has my computer and camera and other electronics in it. I have had to adopt a very different strategy from my usual one for this trip, because of the tiny carry-on size and weight allowance. Other than the electronics, we can only take the bare minimum we will require for our overnight stay in Doha. Once we get to Lusaka, we will have to open up the big suitcases and repack the carry-ons for our three-day stay in Livingstone. That will be a huge challenge because the space is very limited. But there honestly is no point in taking either of the big suitcases for that trip.
My jacket is pretty much loaded, and I have pre-loaded some of Walter’s pockets also. You know what we won’t be taking? An umbrella or raincoat! Zambia is well into their winter/dry season now and rain will not be a worry.
Later this afternoon our friends from church Gary and Anna came over to say goodbye, since they won’t be in church tomorrow. So we had a nice little visit with them.
All of my obsessive planning ahead and packing means that today was not a super frantic day at all. I didn’t have any interest in cooking, though, so I went out and got pizza to serve when Joanna came over for supper, and we even watched a movie afterward. We won’t see her again until August.
After saying goodbye to her, I finally got around to cutting Walter’s hair, which I had planned to do earlier in the week. It wasn’t too long yet, but it would be in another five weeks so I went ahead and cut it.
Then I closed up the big suitcase and we weighed it while I held my breath. 62 pounds. This is wonderful news. It’s overweight, but not past the 70-lb limit, so we just have to pay the overweight baggage charge on that one suitcase. Oh, and neither suitcase needed the two-inch expansion after all.
As I write this, I’m washing one last load of wash so I don’t have to come home to dirty clothes. I still have some paperwork to do, so I may be up a little late, but I figure I can always sleep on the plane.