Gearing Up

Here it is, two days before the flight out, packing and finalizing. I spent 3.5 hours at the local REI store on Saturday gathering all the things that I still needed. I think I have everything now. From water purification tablets and powdered drink mixes, to waterproof outer shells both pants and coat, to . . . well alot of other stuff . . . now I need to pack it. It's all about organization at this point, what will I need to dig out first and quickest.

Then the flights, and there are many.

1. Denver to Houston
2. Houston to JFK
3. JFK to London
4. London to Nairobi
5. Nairobi to Kilimanjaro

I could have chosen to bypass the Houston leg and fly east directly from Denver, but Houston is where most of the team is located so I thought it would be easier to meet up there instead of trying to match plans in Africa, but then again that could have been an adventure in itself, next time.

I talked with my brother the other night and he mentioned that the trek agenda has changed (see below). We will not be staying a complete day at the high Crater Camp. Darn it, I was kind of looking forward to that in some strange way. Mostly just to experience the altitude and how I will react to it. You know, it's not that often when we are faced with an experience that is so different from all of our past experiences, I want to feel it completely. Just interesting to me that's all. Anyway, he was not able to acquire some of the equipment that he wanted to use for some experiment with the glacier ice he was planning and that is the reason for the change.