Will we ever be ready to board?

Last June, after much discussion, John and I decided that if flying was such a hassle, and yet we'd love to go back to the UK to see our friends and explore more patches of England, we'd find another way.  We also wanted to see New York, which still seems the centre of the universe.  In 10 years time that might change - could be Beijing.

So that's why we've chosen to go by sea, and subsequently we've booked three cruises:

• Sydney to Southampton via Panama (55 days)
• Southampton to New York via Halifax (8 days)
• Seattle Alaskan cruise (7 days).

Additionally, we are travelling shanks pony, bus - most are accessible -  in London (7 days), 30 days car hire (a wheelchair accessible small van with John as the backseat driver) in England; then Amtrak from New York to Niagara, Boston to Chicago and across the continent via Glacier National Park to Seattle.

Our only flight (we hope) will be Vancouver to Sydney around 16th July.  We haven't booked that yet since we are still clarifying our Amtrak booking.  You can imagine how many questions we need to ask regarding showers in hotels, transfers from ship and train, accessible tours; the list goes on.  We'll let you know how we get on.

We leave on 5th March from Circular Quay on the Queen Victoria.  We have a wheelchair accessible inside cabin, so we will need to set the alarm clock if we want to watch the ship arrive at each port.

There is still so much to do.  Passport photos for an international driver's license; mend clothes - I am a procrastinator with replacing buttons; check medication - over four month's worth; check and pack all John's medical supplies and appliances.. and so it goes.

Packing will be the worst of it.  A big suitcase plus another medium sized bag for John's lap will carry all his "stuff" including a fold up and pull apart commode chair, designed to John's specifications about 15 years ago (perfect for travelling).  All our clothes will need to fit into another suitcase.  How, I do not know.

But we are starting to get excited.  I don't know how we will go with the Internet.  Very expensive on the ship.  I expect we will be writing in Word and cutting and pasting into a blog post, as well as enhancing our photos in Picasa ahead of time.