Ready, set. . .

The day of departure has arrived. Just past midnight now and the lists are almost all crossed off or just plain tossed out of the way!

Steinbeck's words from "Travels with Charley" are ringing very true. "Once a journey has been designed, equipped and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us."