It's almost time...

It's after midnight, so we are officially leaving for TMOART:12 today.

If all goes according to plan, we will be pulling out of here in approximately 12 1/2 hours. We're planning to leave at about 2pm and drive more-or-less straight through to Virginia, with a couple of short stops planned in various places along the way. We're meeting a friend for breakfast in Kentucky, and another friend for lunch a little farther east in Kentucky too. We plan to arrive at our destination in Virginia Friday evening.

We have lots of stuff planned for our weekend there - but I'm not telling you what we're doing. You're just going to have to pay attention and follow along on the road trip.

Of course, I'll be posting status updates on my facebook page as we go, and I'll blog as often as I can - but it's a pain in the butt to do from my phone. And for some reason, when I did a test run the other night, I had issues getting it to post to my wall. I'll play around with it some more and see if I can figure it out.

Anyway, as of now, I have clothes for me, The Dude, and all 3 boys packed. The 3 older kids opted to stay with Ex1 tonight so the girls will have to get their clothes together in the morning when they get back.

The tent is packed up and in the van - that was an experience.

The van is officially "Road Trip Ready" - new tires, new oil and oil filter, new air filter, and a "new" brakelight assembly thingamajig (ok, so we robbed it off of The Dude's van. Don't judge.), and it's been vacuumed out and the trash has been removed from it.

All of the laundry is done, except for what we're currently wearing. The dishes are all done and just need to be taken out of the dishwasher and put away. The local police department has been notified that we will be gone so that they can keep an eye out if necessary. A friend is going to get my mail and water my plants.

Tomorrow morning we finish packing up the odds and ends. Straighten up the house. Double check everything to make sure that we didn't forget anything important. Get some food to put in the cooler to munch on to save money along the way. Get some stamps to mail out the bills that I'll have to pay while we're on the road. Mow the grass (and the neighbor's grass).

And then we hit the road.