I’m the luckiest guy today, hhmmm.. let’s see there’s only six days left till our departure, this morning I’ve been informed that I’m required to fulfill my civic duty - Jury Fuckin duty!….Fuck Me! I was hoping the odds were stacked in my favor, I dialed the automated jury hotline hoping I would be dismissed but nope Lucky Eddy got the automated voice that basically said “We’re fuckin with you before you leave, please report to the courthouse at 7:45am..” So I report for jury duty (by the way I could not get excused prior to my report date), I present my itinerary, passport (with Visa stamps) and plane tickets to the jury interviewer, requesting either a one year postponement or to be excused - result: Denied! Why? Because I don’t have a return ticket indicating I’ll be back in over a year!! I plead my case, this is ridiculous I have to get prepared for my trip etc.. - Denied! Nope sorry I have to serve! So I’m told to report back to the jury waiting area and will have to serve as a juror! Don’t they understand that I’m leaving in less than one week! Can you believe it, even if a trial is scheduled to last less than 2 days I’m “obligated” to serve as a juror! To make a long story short, I wait it out in the jury room, by 4pm I’m not called in for a trial and get dismissed - just call me Lucky.

Next Sunday this time, we will be on the way to the airport! Not to come back, hopefully, for at least a year. All the major legistics are taken care of, house rented, dogs are with my mom, both mom’s are now able to email. Now we just need to make sure everything fits in our 23 and 25 liter packs. All the stuff we will bring is bought. Finish weeding the yard and packing the house, and we are off! Lots of dinners with good friends for the rest of the week. The idea of living out of our backpacks for a year is finally settling in. CRAZY!