The Journey Begins!

What a whirlwind couple of days it has been! Here's a recap:

• Ike works 12 hour shifts as a reminder why he's happy to resign from his job
• Bethany spends an entire week alternating between watching season one of game of thrones and packing the apartment
• Ike's last day was Friday - bidding adieu to 3.3 years at Epic

• Bethany and Ike spend Friday night saying goodbye to friends in Madison; finish packing up the trailer Saturday morning, and attempt to drive home.
• Sidenote on the trailer:  the 4Runner has the old 'flat4' connector on the back for hooking up the trailer lights, but the trailer has the newer 'round6'.  We bought a converter to hook up the trailer, but had some bad news:  the tail lights worked, but the turn-signal and brake lights don't work.  Worried about figuring out how we could avoid getting ticketed or rear-ended, Ike's dad has a perfect moment of redneck ingenuity:  "You're driving during the day, right?"  -Yes...?  "Well, every time you brake, turn on your lights so the tail lights turn on, and it'll look like you're braking."   -Perfect.
• After spending an entire week packing, we were pleasantly surprised to see that unpacking only took an hour and a half [always nice to have family roped into helping!]
• Saturday night we celebrating with friends and family at JP's 207

• Sunday, being mother's day, was naturally spent not prepping the vehicle too much, which invariably led to us having a whirlwind prep session Monday morning:

Bethany's dad working on getting the bull/brush guard prepped:

 Bethany's Mom and Grandpa working on prepping our water jug:

 Completing the wiring of the tail-lights for the hitch-platform, zip-tying the lights to the frame

The [over]packed vehicle;  an embarrassment to true overlanders, but good news: lots of the stuff on the platform are going to end up on the hitch platform [but stayed inside because night one was Chicago], and a fair amount of the stuff is 'disposable':  magazines that we'll get rid of as we read, assortment of alcohol from the apartment, some random gifts for friends we're seeing along the way.  Three weeks from now things should be a lot more evened out. 

And here is mile zero for our trip!  Here's to seeing 300k!

Look how packed this vehicle is!  Here's to keeping big smiles over the next year and change! :)