It’s the day before I leave for my 85 day trip through Asia. I’m a little nervous right before I leave. It’s the knowledge that I’ve probably forgotten something. And, I probably will. But, I also know that I’m well-prepared. I’ve done this before. Several times. I’ve got some experience, but going on vacation outside of the United States for 85 days at one time is something very few people ever get to do and to have done it a half-a-dozen times puts me in a position that even fewer people ever get to be in. I know the trials and tribulations of long-term travel. It can be daunting when I’m trying to do the whole thing at a minimum of cost. Whenever you cut travel costs you tend to give p a certain level of comfort. I’m not looking to be a homeless street person. That’s a level of comfort, or more aptly, discomfort, that I just will not accept. I am, however, very fortunate that my desire for luxury is minimal. Luxury was just something I never aspired to. I’m not really worried about my comfort level. I have this silly mantra about suffering for my art that I never seem to be able to put behind me. The only reason that I get nervous about a trip of this length is that I just know that there are a lot of potential trials awaiting me on the Tourist Trail.

But, I’ll be ready.

The first thing that I did this morning was to verify my departure time for tomorrow. Luckily, the weather is good. Winter weather can cause problems for airplanes. I fly from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles LAX airport late tomorrow afternoon. I leave LAX for Auckland New Zealand late tomorrow night and arrive some 13 hours later. Interestingly, I leave the U.S. on the 6th of February and arrive in Auckland on the 8th of February even though I’m only in the air for a little over 13 hours. Time zones make life interesting. I also called American Airlines to ask if I could check-in online and get a digital boarding pass. I found that I could. It will be the first time I use an electronic boarding pass with this airline if I choose to do so.

My next step was to put the Amazon Kindle reader on my new laptop. [more]
There were 1,467 items eligible for Kindle Unlimited when I did a search for them under the topic of New Zealand. If you want to know how I did this, simply go to Amazon and do a search for New Zealand in the Kindle Store. Once there, check the box for Kindle Unlimited. If you travel, you might be amazed how much “free” stuff you can get for some locations in the Amazon store.

It’s the last real day that I have to pack. My goal is to be totally packed and ready to go before the sun rises on the day I leave on the trip. That day is tomorrow.

I had a good-bye dinner with one of my daughters.