[Kate] Before Takeoff

Hi! I’m Kate Beal and this is my first blog post! If anyone doesn’t know at this point, our family is selling our house, putting our stuff in storage and traveling around the world for six months! This blog is our records of the travels. So a least six times a week (hopefully) someone will be posting a little of whatever’s going on with the insanity that is now our lives!

This blog is supposed to be about traveling and all the crazy stuff we see. And it is about everything we do, but it’s also probably going to end up being about (all least in part) crazy mistakes, failures and other tidbits. Many of which, I might add, will probably feature yours truly.
Traveling is always a little stressful even before you go, because you need to make sure you have everything you need and you are totally prepared. Because of the length of our voyage, naturally the week leading up to it was very stressful as everyone packed and fretted over last minute additions or situations.

The night before we were to depart, the house was empty of all our usual furniture, including carpets in some rooms. My brother, glorying in the open spaces, started “sock sliding” over the slick wooden floors. I joined him and we quickly started having competitions of who could get the farthest. We experimented with different techniques and different starts, both trying to outdo the other.
Cannon (my brother) got in a very good slide and I was determined to beat him. I got in a very good running start, but soon became unsteady and feel to my knees as I started sliding. I went surprisingly fast and banged into the opposite wall, in not exactly a hard impact, but not a soft one either.
My knees were a little tender feeling from my experience, my first words were to Cannon telling him never to do that. Little did I know. As I scooted away from the wall I noticed a hold in my pants where my knee was. Looking more closely I saw another hole on the other side of the pants, where my other knees was.

This is one of the holes burned into my pants

Wonderful. I had burned a hole in my pants from the friction.

On a more normal day this would have been no big deal. I would throw away those pants and get new ones from my dresser. Except that I only had three pants at the time, the rest being in storage somewhere. And I really needed needed those three pants for the trip. Now I had only two.
Abashedly, I told my Mom, while Cannon cackled and danced in the background. My Mom and I had a last minute shopping trip, getting me a new pair of pants. And an air mattress to sleep on that night and a new pair of shorts.
That was a problem before we even left the house. The day before our flight. A little unfortunate, but I guess I’d better get used to it—it’s not like things will get easier from here!