South Pacific Trip - Day 1: Monday, November 23 8:38 PM PST

Day 1: Monday, November 23 8:38 PM PST - SFO Airport clinic
The journey begins! I spent a hectic day finishing up at work, going to deal with last minute details in the form of glasses and India tickets through the pouring rain. After work I rushed home to finish packing and to try to sort out the tons of papers I have accumulated over the last few weeks preparing for this trip. My roommate Chuck came home around 8:00 with his girlfriend Sonya and they gave me a ride through the rain to the airport. As we went, I quoted the old Chinese proverb "Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
I checked in at the airport and went to the airport clinic to get the last of my inoculations. I expected to find it deserted, but instead it was full of people. As I waited, an airport cop debriefed three airport employees about some sort of accident that had just occurred. It seemed to have something to do with an airplane's wing hitting a truck. Whatever it was about, they all got suspended from their jobs. Not a very good omen for the rest of the trip.
Its hard to believe that this trip is actually happening! I will be away for four months visiting Connecticut for thanksgiving and then Australia, India, New Zealand, Fiji, Venuatu and Tonga. I got the idea a few months ago, and managed to get a leave of absence from work to make the trip. After asking for six months, I was able to get four. Still a huge period of time! I got the seeds of the idea for this trip a couple of years ago when a co-worker, Maria, took six months off to see South America and other parts of the world. At her goodbye lunch, I said I wished I could go with her. "Anyone can do this", she said. After trying to make it work for the last few years, I finally decided to just do it last September. For the first few weeks, it just didn't seem real. Even after I got the permissions and started to make the arrangements for the trip, I had the feeling that it wouldn't actually come off. Well here I am at the airport, so I guess it did! It will be interesting to see what the next few months will bring.

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