My mom flew out to Cleveland and whisked the boys off to a hotel with a pool near the beach in Mentor so that I could focus on packing. I scheduled two consecutive weekly donation pick-ups and sent off at least 50 boxes of ‘stuff’ while averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night. It seemed that there was no end to the packing and sorting. On the night before the last pick-up, we had a neighborhood farewell party to say goodbye to everyone (and to hope they would take some of our ‘stuff’). This was the bookend to the original ‘meet the neighbors’ party we hosted when we moved onto the street in 2006. It was great to see everyone and be able to show them photos of the boat. LL brought a ‘bon voyage’ cake and JB and TT were a great help with the website. Everyone was so excited and encouraging of the trip. Later Matt and I looked at each other and said – Well, I guess it’s too late to back out now!