Chicago - March 30, 1999
On April 5, 1997, we decided to embark on this trip and started our initial plans. For
those doing the math, that’s 726 days. One would figure we could plan a trip to the
moon and back and still have some time left over to find a cure for cancer….not the
case. About three hours before we had to leave for the airport, we realized we could have
used 727 days to get everything done. I was running around town buying last minute things
to bring with us and Kelly was going through a huge pile of over-the-counter remedies on
our bedroom floor to weed out what to bring. I couldn’t even tell you how much stuff
we had left when we woke up on our last morning in Chicago--but I reassured myself we had
over 8 hours and that was plenty of time to do everything…..at least that was what I
kept telling myself. At about 11am, I decided to leave to get cash and to find a
last-minute adapter for my computer at Wolf Camera. The local store didn’t have it
but gave me very detailed directions on how to get to another store 15 minutes away. All I
can say is the Wolf Camera employee was WAY OFF!!!! The 15 minute drive turned into an
hour. I also discovered that if you pass a certain exit on the 294 tollway, it is
impossible to get off until you reach the airport which is a good 10-15 miles. I finally
located the place myself, bought the adapter and got back around 2pm. I figured Kelly had
several hours to go through the huge pile of stuff on our bedroom floor and finalize
everything else. However as I walked through the door, I found Kelly talking with her
friend Christine as her two lovely daughters played with our stuff and chased our cat
around the house. Christine actually did us a huge favor by coming by to drop off our
computer docking station that we mistakenly stored at her house. Christine, thank you, and
I apologize for the panic attack I had when you were over! Kelly did get most of the stuff
we needed sorted out, but the huge pile of stuff remained on our bedroom floor.
I think we were in a very bad case of denial. Even though we had left our jobs two
weeks before, sold our condo, and were living in Kelly’s parents home, I don’t
think it really hit us that we were leaving for 14 months. All of our friends were asking
us if we were freaking out yet and we honestly weren’t. And that’s probably why
we didn’t have everything done two weeks before we were to leave. Now that we are
gone, I realize how stupid that was and I promised myself if we ever plan another 14 month
journey, we will be better prepared!
We spent our last two hours cramming things into backpacks and running around the house
asking ourselves if we had everything. We finally got our bags in the cab, did one last
run through around the house, and left for the airport. As we headed towards the airport,
we just stared at each other as it started to sink in we were really leaving.
The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, which is always preferable. I wasn’t too
sure about the condition of the plane after a piece of my chair fell off and the lights
above us wouldn’t turn on--other than the one light above Kelly which wouldn’t
turn off. I guess we were pretty lucky since there was a light several rows ahead of us
that blinked through the entire flight (I’m sure that person got plenty of sleep).
