Final Weigh-IN

Final packed weight. Jan's 48. Paul 44. It was a short lived symbolic victory.

And our bathroom scale agreed with Continental!

Preliminary Weigh-IN

Currently Jan's suitcase weighs nine pounds less than mine. She hasn't finished packing yet but she is very proud.

Packing, Packing, Packing.....

Fifty pounds.  Sixty one inches.  Those are Continental's transatlantic luggage limits.  Or you can write them a check for $200.  I put everything in my suitcase except a dress shirt and a suit for formal nights and the scale says 33 pounds.  Even if the scale is a little off we should be good to go.  Looking at my travel companion's assortment of clothing and accessories I'd say it's going to be very close.

Blog Publishing At Sea

People on the ship complain about the internet connection speed.  I could fairly compare the bandwidth to fast dial up.  The cruise ship people aren't being cheap.  It's a moving ship.  There's a satellite dish that needs to track its target and the platform the dish is attached to yaws, pitches and rolls.  The further away from the equator the ship gets the more difficult it is to maintain the signal.  Considering the obstacles the connection in plenty fast. 

This blogging tool (blogger.com) is easier to use than what I used previously.  I can pre-compose all of my entries in a document editor (MS Word) and size my pictures using Photoshop.  Then it's merely cutting and pasting once connected. 

I get somewhere between 150 and 200 minutes of "free" connect time as a perk now.  It's not difficult to burn through that quickly.  Even with all of the advance work it usually takes 12 minutes to post an average entry 

The first few days in London I get access to a WiFi signal.  After that we are at the mercy of good winds at our backs and sun on our faces. 

I may actually start packing tonight.  Of course I'll work on the electronics first. 

The Final Countdown

The bags are not yet packed.  We've identified which suitcases will be used.  Jan finished the football.  For the uninitiated it is a three ring binder that contains all of the travel arrangements, tickets, confirmation numbers and anything else trip relevant.  It is laid out, day by day by day.  It is called the football because that is the nick name the armed services give to the briefcase with the nuclear missle launch codes that follow the president. 

As always trying to decide exactly what should go in the suitcase it a challenge.  Weather conditions vary quite a bit, but that happened in Alaska too.

One Week To Go (more or less)....

With a week to go the push is on to stay out of the heat.  Really.  That's what we are doing today.  There is no special travel accessory I need.  I could use a few video tapes, but otherwise I'm pretty much set.

Incidentally, the luggage penalties on Continental are worth mentioning.  $200 if the suitcase is over size or over weight.

The Phone Thing

For a variety of reasons we'd like to have a cellular phone with us during the trip.  It's not for social calls, but for emergencies.  Plus, we have so many private tours booked the guides might need to contact us.  It's not easy.  Shelly Palmer wrote about it in his blog a couple of weeks ago.  On Friday I will visit Verizon and see what we can create.