Prologue Part II: The Final Countdown
May 15-16, 2024
With 24 hours before I drive away from home, I strategically stay up until 2:30 AM gathering any and all last minute gear together in a giant pile on my basement floor. After a three hour nap, I shuttle the kids to school then come home to refresh my fishing knot skills, and tie up the multitude of loose ends that unfailingly appear at the final moment, driving all over town for items such as perfectly flavored corn nuts, a backup headnet, and a waterproof case for my phone. When paying for the phone case, I notice a micro blow torch for sale for five dollars, and buy it. I already have 5 pocket Bic lighters at the ready, packaged in various places in ziplocs and wrapped with duct tape, but I figure one can never be too cautious when relying on cheap lighters for fire and stove ignition. Even if I don’t use it, it will be the perfect tool to have at our family Fourth of July fireworks display.

With the gear assembled, double-checked, and packed, I shuttle all of it to the trusty Honda Civic at 2:30 P.M. The Civic is my long haul steed for the third straight year. In March, I scheduled a precautionary visit to the mechanic to make sure it was ready for this drive, and a substantial oil leak was discovered, then fixed. This was my first time to have the mechanic give a general once-over look of the vehicle as part of pre-trip planning, and I intend to keep doing this. The timeline is tight and this trip is too important to ignore the impact of a preventable catastrophic failure between here and the north country.

There are always so many life commitments to button up before leaving. I meet with a home improvement salesman at 3 P.M. about our rotting siding. When I mention my trip as a reason I will be difficult to reach in the coming days with a proposal, he expresses nothing but support, which feels great. It always feels very self-indulgent to leave my home for a week in the woods alone. I should be exhausted, but my spirits are high now that the months-long ordeal of packing and prep is behind me and my entire trip lies before me. Since it’s my last meal at home with the family, I scramble to fire up the grill for one last hearty meal of burgers and bratwurst for everyone. My daughter has a softball game tonight, and the boys are headed to a trampoline park with friends, but I reluctantly tell them that I need to stay at home and sleep before beginning my cannonball run north.

Sleep comes easy, and I awaken as everyone arrives back home from the game and trampoline park a few hours later. Once all are tucked in and I say way too many goodbyes, I nervously piddle around a bit more before realizing there’s truly nothing left for me to do. It’s time.