Preparing for Armenia in an unusual way

My parents, Alice and Jack Murphy

        I will admit that I am very fortunate! Maybe I'm a little bit of a masochist also. Who else plans a week long vacation immediately prior to departing the country for a month? Yup, that's me. 5 weeks away from home and family. Interstingly, the vacation was actually a decent preparation for the trip in many ways. I shall enlighten you.
       Traveling for example. My parents live approximately 12 hours away. We departed on a Friday after work and drove a little over 6 hours, stopping for the night outside of Pittsburgh. The next morning we got back on the road for another 6 1/2 hours. My flight to Armenia will take 2 days of travel, though many more hours to get there. My overnight stay will be spent over the Atlantic and propped upright unless I get REALLY lucky and have an empty seat beside me for a bit of room to stretch out.
       We arrived Saturday afternoon at my parents to discover that they had had a very bad storm the previous night with trees down all over the state and, of course, the power was out. Now maybe I should back up and explain that we had just finished a week of upper 80's to upper 90* temperatures and the next week was due to remain in the upper 90's and possibly top 100*. It was already 82* in the house and climbing at 2pm(about 16 hours after the power had gone out at 10pm) Armenia is often 95-105* temperature range so this should be great for acclimating, not so great for vacation!

My sister, Laura Goetz

       Fortunately my sister lives 2 hours away and though her house was small, she had power! So we packed my parents up and headed for Richmond. We grabbed a good portion of their food for dinner as she had cleaned the house out anticipating joining up at my folks. We enjoyed appetizers of shrimp cocktail and then a glut of chicken, salad and bread for dinner having prepared all the chicken we had found in the freezer as well as what they had originally thawed for dinner.
       That night we got word that the power wasn't expected to be back on for 2-3 more days. Soooo, Sunday we drove (2 hours each way) back to my parents and cleaned out both refrigertors dumping the dairy and other questionables and packing the rest to go to my sisters house. Yes, the house was hot but fortunately not unbearably. My dad packed a few extra things for he and my mom and we were out of there in under 2 hours with only a minimum lost.  So more travel, heat and work, just like in Armenia.
       We were about 15 minutes away from my sister's house when my Dad got the call that the power was back on. He had already checked into a hotel for that night so we continued on our way planning to return to the house on Monday after it had cooled down and the refrigerators were back up to cold. This night we feasted on big fat hamburgers instead of the smaller normal sized ones we were used to, and corn on the cob all brought back from my parents house. Yes, we eat VERY well in Armenia too!
       Monday we headed back to my parents house with all the food in tow and my sister on our heels to stay. Repacking the few items that remained fully frozen, we determined that it was going to be steak and lamb for dinner. LOTS of it! We settled in and checked everything out to make sure everything was on that should be and visa versa.
       Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday eveings we had power flickerings and wondered if we might lose power again but were fortunately  not to have. It was several days of stick picking up and grouping before the guys came to cut up the huge tree limb that had fallen. Lots of bending and such will help me be in better shape for the trip. :-)
     Fortunately, we were able to spend a little time by the pool thought the first day we were chased away by thunder. So I got some sun, got a bit more acclimated to the heat and a little opportunity to enjoy vacation before we packed up for a 12 hour trip straight home on Saturday.
       I am thoroughly ready for a long trip on Tuesday and the work that follows my arrival. I am actually excitedly looking forward to it! I hope that you will enjoy following our month long experience enough to decide that this would be a great vacation with a purpose for you to do next summer! It's not too early to start planning for 2 weeks of adventure in 2013!