May 27th, Friday - Wichita Falls - As the temp approaches 100F, we make final preparations, final lists, final haircuts.  The ISD has Jody working Saturday - right up to Sunday - departure day.  Much has changed since that first entry was written.  At Erin's urging we have decided not to drive down the eastern side of the Adriatic. "Just not safe," she insists, "especially with a new French car."  Travelling through some areas of pretty severe poverty, so the current plan takes us east to Budapest - then back west to Lubjliana - over the north end of the sea, and down the west Italian shore to Brindisi and the Greek ferry.  Down the east side of the boot and up the west.  Should be great!
     Hard to believe we will board just day after tomorrow!

May 30th - Sunday -Paris!  Started early.  We both woke about 3:30 am. and felt "ready to go."  We completed the final checklist, loaded up Jody's Hundai, and drove down to her sister, Julie's place in Bowie, where we left the car until our return.  Our great friend Debbie took us the rest of the way down to DFW.  Such a nice gal!  She dropped us off at Terminal D.  One bag was a bit over the 50lb. limit, but we spread things around a bit and made it under the limit.  We flew Iberia, the Spanish airline, which uses American where it is not a full-service carrier. 
     We flew DFW-Boston-Madrid- and Paris, changing planes, always concerned about the two checked bags.  1. We easily made all of the connections. 2. The bags were both there!  3. A couple of people helped us communicate with the car company - and all went smoothly until the new GPS appeared to fail.  We hadn't received the new road atlas in time, and were really counting on the GPS.  Now we had nothing but the 10-yr old atlas with a 4" square map of the city of Paris.  I was instantly glum as we drove aimlessly further and further from Bois du Bologne, our first campground.  Jody doesn't give up so easily and soon pushed the right combination of buttons to bring the GPS to life.  Even with the GPS, it took a bit of looking but by 2:00 or so, we had camp pretty well set up, had filled the car's empty tank, and gotten our first batch of euros.  In Bois du Bologne it was 56E for two nights.  We both had naps.  Mac & cheese for dinner, and very soon showers.  We're here!

                                   Paris -Bois du Bologne Campground