Just Do It

We have had a few busy days lately.  I finished up work yesterday so that we can really concentrate on getting everything done that has to be done before we take off - Friday week and we are going flying - woohoo!!

Today we went to the US Consulate office in Auckland for our visa application interview.  We have to have a visa because we are going for longer than 3months.  What a lot of security and stuff you have to go through to get a visa.  We bribed the boys with a fate worse than death if they dared to start fighting with each other and it worked, they were very well behaved.  We were pretty confident of getting the visas sorted but when the women in front of us was denied my tummy did a few nervous flips.  We must have looked pretty genuine though because the guy issuing our visa mentioned that it was valid for 6months and that if we liked the place and wanted to stay longer we could just pop over to Canada for a couple of nights and get another 6months on re-entry.

Awesome - America here we come! 

Slowly and surely we are getting the jobs to be done ticked off.  My big achievement over the weekend was to complete the accounts for the water ski club and hand them over ready for auditing.  A treasurers report to write and then that one is completely done.

Went to Helen's 60th birthday party on Saturday night oh my goodness I am still recovering, there will be no alcohol crossing my lips tonight!  It was great fun at the time though and we got to catch up with lots of friends that we won't get to see for a while. 

I think the main reason I am feeling so weary is that Friday night I woke at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I got up and started plotting possible routes and reading travel brochures.  Next thing I knew the birds were tweeting and the boys were up, still that means another job is getting a lot closer to getting a tick.  We have started up a book with all the States listed and when we come across something we want to do, or see, it will go into this book.  Hopefully we can then work everything into an itinerary and not forget anything.

Amazing what you find out when you go and talk to people.  We figured we would talk to the bank and arrange to pay for the RV throught the bankcard and collect the points.  Talking to the lady at the bank we found out that by paying with our card we are entitled to free travel insurance.  Man, what a saving!  We were up for over $1,000 in travel insurance - cool, I guess we just got a whole heap more spending money.

So, now the RV is paid for and we wait for all our travel documents to arrive.

I just realised tonight that while we are away we are going to miss all the racing action with the V8s.  I am waiting kind of patiently to see how Murph goes at Shanghai, I hope he does well.  We will definitely be checking out the V8 website while we are away to keep up to date with the comings and goings. 

 GO MURPH!!

Yippee, I think I have finally worked out how to post a pic in this blog.  To start with just to try things out I am putting in a family pic.

Andy, Tommy (7), Alistair (12), Nick (10) and Lynda.

Yahoo!!  We are all booked now and pick up the motorhome on 14 July.  We had a few hiccups seeing as we decided at the last minute to do this and couldn't get an RV out of Los Angeles as we were hoping.  Never mind, a few emails later and we get to pick one up from Phoenix in Arizona.  Now that is booked things start to seem a little more real.  There is still a whole pile of stuff to do, but we will whittle through that list bit by bit.

Andy has spent the last couple of days researching how to get online with the laptop while we are away.  Looks like we are pretty much there with that now too so we can keep updating everyone.

It is Queen's Birthday weekend now and we are heading off to Auckland for the boat show and a bit of time out.  We also need to pick up a couple of bits for the computer.  Nick and Tommy are playing hockey at Maungaturoto tomorrow morning so we will continue to Auckland after that.  Alistair played his game tonight - a 2 all draw.  These Friday night games really bug me because I can't get to see him play with working until 5pm. 

Man the weather is atrocious at the moment with all the wind and rain around you can sure tell there is snow somewhere.  I just checked the temperatures in Phoenix at the moment 5am and 25 degrees Centigrade 77 Farenheit.  I guess by the time we get back from the US I might understand farenheit a bit more.

Ok it is too cold and I am fighting to keep my eyes open, so off to bed for me.