End of July update

Well, GTRV promised us over and over again that the van would be ready by now, but c'est la vie. What an agonizing and astonishingly difficult time we have had getting any response or help from them! And they have the nerve to be frustrated with us when we keep pressing them for answers! We will certainly not be recommending them to anyone, even if the pop-top (in fact, we gave up on ever hearing back regarding our questions on the other conversion work we had been considering, and so are only having them pop the top - that's it!!!) is perfectly constructed and works wonderfully. In any event, our moms have their tickets and are heading to Seattle on Wednesday, August 8th. They will stay with my mom's older sister Flossie, and Flossie and John will drive them up to Vancouver on Thursday the 9th. So...finally, almost!!! Only 3 more weeks (a little less now) until the van is finally home! Now we are considering how to do a website, how to get sponsors, what we want our focus to be, etc., etc. I wrote to the Washington Post Travel section today, in hopes that they may have some interest in having us write for them or in following along, with updates and reviews from us along the way. We shall see. We have also recently found a few other sites that are relevant and worthwhile, and we will be writing to those folks as well to get their advice and opinions. So much to do, so little time! We have less than a year to go until departure time, and are still so unorganized and unplanned. But, we are working hard and spending a few hours almost every night dedicated to our Journey. Last night we discussed our ideas on Belize: how long we want to spend there, where we want to go, what we want to see, which route is best. We have also done this kind of detailed work for the portion of our trip from the Badlands through Alberta/British Columbia, up into Alaska and back down along the Marine Highway into Vancouver. Of course, we will always leave room to just take off and go, or to stay a few extra days if need be, but this is a great way for us to really focus our ideas and thoughts and work on them together to form a cohesive, well thought-out plan. More sooner, rather than later.