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This is our second installment of the TO-DO List of a lifetime. For those of you just tuning in, we will be leaving everything on the list and just striking it out as we go. This has been a busy month with holidays and Adam getting back to work after his knee surgery, but we managed to get a few things checked off. We started by attacking the items that we could do this far out like some of the banking, and others that will require follow up between now and departure such as some of the vaccinations. Keep in mind several shots you need a series of three over the course of 6 months to get immunity, so make sure you start early enough!

Financial

• Sign up for Charles Schwab Account (Zero ATM fees World Wide) Done
• Setup layered bank accounts & train parents to dump money between accounts so we don’t have to while connected to shady Wi-Fi spots
• Figure out car insurance – Apparently it can be difficult or expensive to get car insurance when you return home if you have a gap in coverage (Our insurance agent is a friend who will actually be meeting us in Guatemala in the early part of our trip, so he will help us figure it out)
• Sell Hannah’s car
• Spend a few dollars on all mileage credit cards just before we leave to keep miles/points from falling off
• Cancel un-necessary Credit Cards

Friends & Family

• Setup Skype with family/friends
• Host a grand going away party

Gear

• Buy net book for trip
• Buy small clear tackle/storage box for Hannah’s make up
• Buy Large tackle/storage box for medical kit
• Organize Camera / Tech bag
• Finalize Packing of main packs

Planning – NEW!

• Set a general route and time line – See or Route!
• Nail down next years Christmas plans with Hannah’s Parents
• Book our Spanish school and Home Stay for July in Guatemala when we have friends joining us!

Health

• Hep B vac for Adam (one down two more to go)
• Hep A Vac for both of us in May/June
• Typhoid Fever for both of us in May/June
• Yellow Fever for Hannah
• Tetanus for Adam & Hannah (Our insurance covers all of our vaccinations, but from what we have read may insurances don’t; so if that is the case for you, for cost reasons many people opt to get them while on the road early in their journey)
• Schedule Knee Doctor just before we leave (Don’t want to be limping around the world)
• Dentist appointments
• Hannah eye exam June (To keep lifetime warranty on Lasik surgery)
• Change Hannah’s birth control to IUD (We don’t need a permanent tag-a-long, yet!)(appointment set)

Household

• Rent Our House
• Find Tinkerbell a foster home
• Sell unused stuff on eBay / Craig’s list (In process: $65.60 Profits so far)
• Donate stuff that’s not worth listing (5 large garbage bags & counting)
• Put everything else into storage
• Find a place to store Adam’s Truck
• Find a good place to store Hannah’s Wedding Rings
• Order Hannah a cheap wedding band (To ensure others know she is taken!) Done
• Drink 18 bottles of wine (Where did we get all of this wine?) – Three Down, 15 to Go!
  
• Consume 30 bottles of salad dressing (We eat salads daily and when Hannah sees a deal watch out!) – 5 down, 25 to go
• Forward our mail somewhere (Any volunteers to collect 15 months of junk mail??)

Wine with a twist off top does not necessarily get better with age as the old saying suggests! We learned that the hard way when drinking up our “wine cellar” the other day, this stuff was only a few days away from being vinegar I think!

A look into our stock pile, I mean pantry. We have some eating to do, we may try one month to live off of this stash and whatever is in our freezer. Maybe April!

Travel Documents

• Travelers insurance
• Add pages to passports, although we just heard that doing it abroad is easier
• Get passport pictures
• Scan documents – Passports, all receipts for travel insurance claims, all travel confirmations, credit card contact numbers
• Get international drivers license
• Setup Storage on cloud drive & Show Dad how periodically download (We were planning on using Amazon’s drive or is there a better one?)

Work

• Write letter of resignation – Adam (Is it wrong to be really excited for this one?)
• Ask for leave of absence – Hannah

Other Stuff

• Cancel cell phone service (Just before we leave)

Stuff we already did that you should too

• Buy an unlocked GSM Tri / Quad Band cell phone on eBay (You can then buy sim cards and pre-paid minutes abroad, under $0.10USD / minute in most countries)

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