Am I There Yet?

We're officially at the middle mark of our 4-month preparation to leave. Michael's been in the BVI's for 2 months and in another 2 months, I'll have joined him with the fur babies. It's been an incredibly expensive endeavor so far and somewhat stressful trying to get everything coordinated, but it is easier than buying a boat and sailing off, so I'm trying not to let it get to me.

I've done some hiking, and saw a bull snake for the first time on a trail. A big one. I'm glad it was a non-venomous snake because I actually didn't see it, the person I was hiking with did, just as I was about to walk past and very close to the thing.

I went to a gala to raise funds for Liberty Wildlife, a bird (and other small critter) rescue I volunteered with last year. Needless to say, that after living on a boat for 3 years and then a Caribbean island for 4, I don't have a lot of dress up stuff. My date (I was actually her date) lent me 4 dresses of hers and I chose the one that went with the only dressy pair of shoes I own (never worn and about to be donated to Goodwill since they're not good beach shoes). I have not put on nylons, nail polish, or heels in about 2 decades. It turned out surprisingly ok, though!



The event was at the Montelucia Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley. This was the first such event for Liberty and their tables were sold out, so yay them!

This is the resort's stock photo, but it sums it up nicely.

Lots of Liberty handlers were around the property with various birds (and snakes).



There were a lot of things to bid on for various auctions in order to raise funds, some with minimum bids in the thousands. Um, I'm just browsing, thanks.

There was a dinner and lots of speeches to explain what Liberty is all about. It was hard to concentrate on the speaker when the eagle came on stage.

At the end, they release a rehabilitated barred owl (you'll recall I got to witness the release of a great horned owl last year) to freedom. It was a lot of fun and a nice way to break up what had been kind of a rough week. My beer in a wine glass was a nice touch. Not sure why my hair is looking so terrible in these photos, I swear it was cute in person.



Last week, I made the rez's for our final departure - July 5th. The trip requires a lot of things to go just right, but if (when?) they don't, I've got us arriving at each location (Miami, St. Thomas, Tortola, and finally Virgin Gorda) early enough, that there should be later flights/ferries to catch to still be able to pull it off. We shall see...

This week, I hope to hear from immigration so I can get my stuff going - medical, local police, etc. The cats are still plugging through their requirements (titer tests at $363 each, thank you...). As I said at the beginning - this is an expensive endeavor.