Day minus five

John is away on his final business trip, and I am left home to face the task of packing the van for the first three month leg of our trip. A month and a half ago, we spent a grueling week of our lives searching for a VW Vanagon camper that could take us across the country. We opted not to buy the '68 Transporter that had undoubtedly seen the coming and going of the tie-dye era and lived through an epidemic of peace signs and bumper stickers, "Make Love Not War", but settled instead for a 1986 in perfect running order. Perfect running order but not perfectly clean. We spent the better part of three weekends scrubbing, scouring, polishing and hunting down odd parts in the junk yards of Massachusetts.

In 5 days that camper will be our home away from home on wheels. Already we have adopted a theme driving song, fracturing 'On the Road Again' with "In the Van-a-gon".