Good grief!  It is just about time to go. 

Over the past few months we worked as a family to sort out all the details of a year’s travel abroad. 

We started with the outline of the itinerary.  The trip spans six continents and roughly 30 countries and is the journey of a lifetime.  The main focus across the year is ancient civilizations (Greeks, Vikings, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Nabataeans, feudal Japan and China, Khmer, Maori, Incas … even prehistoric man in the caves of Lascaux).  Another highlight is deep immersion in a European culture – four months of city life in Paris with sidetrips around France.  What a contrast that will be with modern peoples in other lands such as India, Cambodia, Bali and South Africa.  And we will appreciate scenic and natural wonders as well, from the mountains of Switzerland and New Zealand, to the ranches of Australia and Argentina, and the wildlife of the Galapagos, Botswana and Kenya. 

Details of hotel, rail, air, guides and other logistics are so complex that we are working with a travel agency.  Sam and Maggie at Small World Travel are experts at bringing families around the world and we are delighted to have their guidance.

We will be living out of suitcases for much of the year.  And with so many transfers to make, Gina cast her eagle eye across all the choices for luggage.  She must have investigated every single piece in a dozen different stores before we settled on bags we hope will be lightweight and tough.  Each article of clothing has also been scrutinized – if it can’t be worn at least once a week, it stays.

To accommodate the travel, the kids will be missing 4th and 7th grades in school.  We reviewed the state standards and developed a curriculum for them.  In addition to textbooks and problem sets, this involved procuring Kindle and normal books for a whole year of literature reading.  The kids and I needed laptops to support all this, and we set up each new laptop with software, anti-virus, backups and cases. 

We identified courses and activities for Paris.  A highly recommended tutor will be helping the kids learn French while they explore the city.   When we hit the ground we will seek courses on drawing and photography and ways for the kids to play soccer.

After deciding to rent out the house we were lucky enough to find a local family who could move in — this must be supported with revised homeowner’s insurance and a special management agency; while the home will remain furnished there is still a serious clean-up needed over the next two weeks for the handover. 

Everyone needed new or extended passports, international driver licenses, and in my case a new state driver’s license since it was due to expire while we were in Paris.  

Cars… we won’t need them so we will sell them.  That should have been easy however we had misplaced the titles to the cars… more bureaucratica… and of course return the plates and close out the insurance. 

Since most credit card companies charge heavy foreign exchange fees, we identifed and set up a new card that promised to avoid the fees. 

After receiving some stiff roaming bills from prior work travel, we wanted to find a cheap way to stay in touch.  That required an unlocked cellphone where we could substitute local SIM cards.  A special phone service, RingCentral, will allow our new phone number to follow us wherever we roam while offering our friends a low-cost US number to call. 

Change of address to be filed; phone and utilities to be canceled; legal matters to be handled in advance; make sure any other bills and taxes are carefully scheduled and can be handled remotely.   All documents need to be scanned and backed up in case of loss.

Kids eyesight was checked, new glasses ordered, and with a back-up pair since nothing ruins a trip faster than broken glasses.  Vaccinations… we’ve had four trips to the hospital as a family for shots; the last one comes on Monday.

Another small touch – we made up cards with our contact information.  We hope to hand these out to old and new friends around the world.

Phew!  Did I mention starting a new website as well?  This is it.  We have named it 365 Saturdays, a brainstorm from Katherine who said spending an entire year traveling with the family would be “like Saturday every day.”  What a perfect vision.

The logistical tasks have been numerous!  Yet this has been a pleasant time.  Each task is simple enough and there are a fixed number left.  We are knocking them down, and with each box checked we are closer to the open road.  From there the possibilities are limitless.