Uff-da

Well, I've completed the first leg of three flights today and currently find myself in Milwaukee.  Since I have last blogged, life has been a whirlwind of trying to get everything in order to leave for six months in the woods. Sally and I began moving things out of our house and into the storage unit (thank goodness it's only a hundred yards from our front door) and right in the middle of that I left to attend the NCECA conference in Seattle. NCECA is the National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts.  It was a blast! Those clay artists sure know how to party. Saw some great art, great friends, and all while walking in the chilly drizzle that typifies Seattle in the spring.
Upon arriving back in Bozeman I had a list of things to accomplish. The Otter pelt in the freezer got tanned, I fired some Sake cups and bottles for Seven Sushi in Bozeman and delivered them, we ran the food dehydrator until the last minute and frantically used the vacuum sealer to package meals, I cleaned up my space in the pottery studio, My boss Don and I dropped off some stone mosaic art pieces to a retail space where hopefully they sell, we also worked on a potential foray into the Reality Television industry, and I dropped Sally off at the airport to fly south with enough time to get back home and throw the last of our belongings in the car so I could vacuum the floors before the carpet steamer guy came. Walk-through complete, I hopped in the car bound for Minnesota with a quick stop-off to pick up Sally's down sleeping bag which had just arrived, special order, that morning.
It was nice to spend Easter with family. I had the realization on the way back from Seattle that it would be a good idea to ramp up my caloric intake prior to walking for days on end. I have seriously employed this tactic in the past week, and found myself in a food coma in my aunt's living room after the Easter meal. 
I'm sitting here with a backpack. That is all. That and some trekking poles which I brought along just to mess with TSA. This will hold my food, shelter, and clothing for the next six months.
I want to thank the guys at Prolite Gear for directing us to the most trick equipment, Northern Lights for pressuring Western Mountaineering to rush sleeping bags, Hyperlite Mountain Gear for making Sally a custom pack, our friends who have been supportive of this crazy idea, especially those whose support came in the form of buying pottery from me in the past few days, and last but not least our families. They know that Sally and I are both crazy, but their love endures nonetheless.