We are sitting in the international terminal at LAX. Off again. The past few days were a whirlwind of mental checklists: travel insurance, notifying credit card companies of travel plans so the fraud department doesn’t block the account, paying bills, last phone calls to friends and family, along with making sure they’ve all got Skype up and running. Then there was packing. It didn’t take long to remember how different packing for longterm travel is from packing to leave on a tour for work. That seems like such a luxury. Driving from place to place means you have space for that extra pair of shoes. Liquids? Who cares? We even end up with a big bag of food staples on the back seat before long. Whatever we have with us now has to cover the bases for the next 10 months, be airline friendly (at least from to to time) and comfortable enough to haul around on our backs every few days. Backpacks came in finally at 27 and 31 lbs, which is reasonable.

LA treated us well, and we were especially happy to meet up with our good friend Paulina for a long, leisurely lunch. Check-in this morning was smooth and painless. Next stop Tokyo.