And we're off! Plus random updates on shipping and school

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Goodbye Utah!

We’ve started the first (very long) day with flights from Salt Lake to Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Johannesburg.  From there, we’re driving through South Africa and Botswana for a safari in Chobe National Park and to visit Victoria Falls.  Mike is not looking forward to driving on the left side of the road for the first time (while jet lagged).

Everybody is looking forward to seeing South Africa, Botswana, Madagascar, and Reunion Island.  However, everybody has had their own anxieties.  Mike was most anxious about taking a year off (and driving on the left side of the road).  I've been most concerned about making sure we actually have the right stuff to live out of backpacks for a year.  Katie doesn’t want to leave her friends and gymnastics.  And Alex was nervous about getting sick after seeing the international travel nurse.

A couple of items that we’re often asked about are:

• How we are taking enough stuff?
• What are the kids doing for school?

Here are is the plan for each.  We’ll update as we learn more along the way…

How we are taking stuff for a year-long trip

The guy that checked us in at the Delta counter was impressed that we were only checking two backpacks (plus a carry on for each person) for a three month trip.  He didn’t know it was actually a year long trip.  On the other hand, he also didn’t know we are shipping bags to Chile (camping gear) and New Zealand (climbing gear).  At least, that’s the plan.

Figuring out a reliable, economical way to ship bags internationally has been a real challenge.  DHL, UPS, USPS, etc., are all willing to ship bags in 3-5 business days for an outrageous amount.  However, nobody seems to handle one-off, economy (slow) shipping.  It looks like we’re going to use www.luggageforward.com, as they have the best combination of a competitive rate, good reputation, and ability to ship to both locations.  It’s still $300 each for bag (up to 50 pounds), but much better than the $1000+ for expedited shippers.  It’s worthwhile to spend that much to get our gear where we need it, and then we’ll decide how much to sell/leave behind, and what we actually ship back home.

What the kids are doing for school

I did a lot of research on remote home schooling options.  I quickly eliminated any programs that required paper text books.  Most of the remaining programs that had computer-based curriculum were through private school programs, and we weren’t ready to spend $18k a year each ($36k total) for a year of school work!  The best option turned out to be Utah Online (www.utahonline.org), which uses the Edgenuity platform.  It will give Alex full credits for Utah public high school, and is free of charge.

The biggest issue is that all of the work must be done online.  There isn’t any option to download couse work and work offline (unlike the private school programs).  We expect this to be one of our biggest challenges, since we expect wifi to be an issue many of the places we are going.  Alex and Katie started as soon as the courses were available (two weeks ago) to get ahead.  So far, so good, although they are already bored of virtual lessons and exercises without any teacher or classmate interaction.

Flight to Johannesburg - our second 10 hour flight.