by Cynthia Wall

Created on: September 21, 2008

I think it's harder getting ready but also more joyful as the trip is still ahead. After the return home, the reality that the fun is over sets in amongst the piles of dirty laundry, but at least there are no time constraints. Every time we go some place, we question if it's worth the effort. Here's what we have to do.

We own a wholesale nursery with two employees so their work schedules have to be written out. Their paychecks need to be made out in advance. All of the plant cuttings and potting soil they will need have to be brought in. Supplies for mending broken pipes need to be available. Cell phone numbers of family members in case of an emergency need to be posted.

We also have six cats not by choice; they just arrived one by one as rural castaways. One is very old, blind and deaf. The next door neighbor will come in daily and feed and cuddle him. We need to place litter boxes all around the house as we don't want him outside. And since, we don't want him to be lonely; we'll bring in one of the younger females he likes. She'll be mad and pee in the laundry basket if we leave it down so we don't. Next, there is an elderly female who needs to be inside at night but who can be outside during the day. We'll leave her in our bedroom which has a pet door to the outside but the bedroom door will be shut to keep the two others inside from getting out. Next, there are two outside females who would like to be inside but who are afraid of the dominant females inside. We'll put food on the porch from them and also up on shelves in the shop and barn because a family of five skunks frequent our back porch. Lastly, there is a feral male we'll put food out for him as well. The water is complicated, too, because the skunks wash their paws in any water bowls, so we've gone to waterers in places we think the skunks won't find.

I'm an average housekeeper but before a trip, I clean like a driven woman. Heaven forbid if we perished on the trip and people came in and saw how we really lived. Then, there's the refrigerator to be cleaned out until our last meal at home is likely boiled carrots and canned soup. All the laundry needs to be done because I know how much we'll have of the stuff when we return no use adding to it.

I also make sure instructions to our grown kids (again in case we don't return) are updated and left in the "Exit" file in the desk drawer. There's mail and the newspaper to be stopped; nursery customers to be told we'll be away; and neighbors to be asked to keep an eye on the place.

The nightmares about being at the airport without my passport usually start a month before the trip. They accelerate to things like forgetting my underwear, but that would be more easily solved than the passport thing. By the time, the actual packing days arrive, I'm exhausted, but adrenalin kicks in and somehow I manage to get us both packed no way, do I trust my husband to remember his underwear. The last two nights, I lie awake, shivering with excitement what my grandmother used to call "journey pride." And then the morning of the departure arrives. We're up at 4, drinking hot coffee, and asking each other "did you remember the?" questions until finally it is time to go to the airport. Halfway there, we start remembering the things we did forget, but fortunately none of them is as serious as a passport.

Through security, in line, and finally onboard. In just 12 hours we'll be at our destination. Is it worth it? Oh yes. Like childbirth, we'll forget all the stuff that comes before and just remember the event itself and all the happy memori

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