After feeling for months that our departure for Portugal was over-the-horizon, we find ourselves with a scant 48 hours before we initiate the final launch sequence.

Jill has been nothing short of amazing. She’s kept us on track while I’ve wrapped up my responsibilities at Boundless. This week I said my fond farewells to the Boundless team, who surprised me with an amazing sendoff and a raft of extremely thoughtful Portugal-related gifts.

Now, we’ve clearly passed the point of no return. We no longer own any cars in the United States (insert shameless plug for Carvana here – they are awesome).

And we’ve shed all of our worldly possessions, save 11 checked bags, two carry-ons, two backpacks, and the two best dogs in the world.

I do want to put something to rest… There has been some concern/speculation from our devoted readers regarding whether my Lucchese cowboy boots were going to make the traveling squad. I’m pleased to report that Jill found a spot for them in the very last bag that she packed.

As the number of open items on the move-to-Portugal project plan trends toward zero, the gravitas of the remaining open items is trending in the other direction.

Heading up the list of remaining items is getting Woody and Bulleit safely from Austin to Lisbon. We know we are in good hands with the folks from petrelocation.com. Kristina, our Pet Relocation travel coordinator for W&B has been on top of all of the logistics for their trip and helped us through the last of W&B’s pre-flight checks this week. Technically they are “livestock” which means that the USDA has to approve of their export. So we took W&B to an approved USDA vet in Austin to get their tracking chips verified, their rabies certificates attested, and medical clearance to fly. That vet entered the information into the USDA system and the USDA Fedex’ed their seal of approval to Kevin from Pet Relocation, who is the agent who will pick them up from our house and get them safely onto their AUS-FRA flight.

In case you were wondering, here are all of the moving pieces for getting the four of us to SMP – starting Monday morning April 22nd:

• Monday 9:30AM CDT – Lawrence and a second driver (because we want to make sure there is enough transit cargo space for all of our luggage) will pick Jill and our bags up from our Austin house and head for the Austin airport, where Jill will do curbside checkin if it’s open and, if not, the spare driver will help Jill get the luggage from the curb to the United desk for checking
• Monday 10:15AM CDT – Kevin and a driver will pick up W&B and head toward the Lufthansa freight desk to check them in for their 3:40PM departure to Frankfurt. The boys have to be checked in several hours before their flight, but Kevin will remain with them until they get rolled out to the plane.
• Monday 10:30AM CDT – I will head to the Austin airport in our rental car after Kevin takes possession of the boys
• Monday 12:14PM CDT – Jill and I will fly from Austin to Dulles on United
• Monday 3:40PM CDT – W&B take off from Austin on a non-stop Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt – THIS STEP IS THE SCARIEST PART OF THE WHOLE MOVE! W&B will be last on and first off of the Frankfurt flight. They will be in large (I mean LARGE) kennels in a lit and climate controlled area in the hold of the aircraft. It’s a 9 hour and 50 minute flight. They will have water and we have asked that their kennels be next to each other.
• Monday 10:15 PM EDT – Jill and I fly from Dulles to Lisbon on United
• Tuesday 8:30AM CEST – W&B land in Frankfurt where they will be checked out by a vet, fed, and spend the day in a pet hotel awaiting their evening flight to Lisbon
• Tuesday 10:30AM WEST – Jill and I land in Lisbon where we will be met by a porter at baggage claim to assist us with our bags and get us through customs to Carlos who is meeting us with a van big enough for all of our our luggage
• Tuesday 11:45AM WEST – Carlos will drop me at the Santogal “used” car dealership in Abrunheira to pick up our Renault Austral from my new friend Luis at Santogal. Carlos and Jill will head to SMP and I will follow once the car is sorted
• Tuesday 2:00-5:00 WEST – Jill and I go to the pet store to pick up the boys’ essentials (Ana Cristina at Avipet in SMP has been fantastic – she has ordered the same food W&B eat in the US and will have it ready when we arrive) and to Intermarché to lay in 48 hours worth of provisions
• Tuesday 7:55PM CEST – W&B leave Frankfurt on a non-stop Lufthansa flight for Lisbon
• Tuesday 10:05PM WEST – W&B make landfall in Lisbon where Gel, our Pet Relocation agent will walk them through customs and the veterinary check
• Wednesday between 12:00-2:00AM WEST – Gel emerges with W&B and we have a joyous reunion
• Wednesday sometime around 2AM WEST – We all arrive back at the house in SMP and we will hunker down for two days to get the boys settled in.

Piece of cake.

Because our house is empty, on Thursday we transitioned to a cute AirBnB that Jill has secured for us – yet another way Jill has made this move as low-stress as possible for me and the boys.

After we got settled into the AirBnB we had a farewell dinner with my cousin Will and his wife Jess at Grizzelda’s.

Junk Luggers came and cleared out everything remaining in the house yesterday, except our luggage and W&B’s kennels. And Carvana came and picked up my truck yesterday afternoon.

It’s an odd feeling having no house and no cars and having gotten rid of 95% of our stuff and just waiting for Monday to arrive.

We have both been using the remaining time productively. Jill had a farewell happy hour with her girlfriends last night. Today I went with my good friend John on one final run to Bee Weaver in Navasota to pick up six additional bee colonies for the ranch. John and I have been through a lot together and it was a lot of fun to have a final (for now) few hours in the car together. And, if you know me at all, you will not be surprised to know that we took advantage of a Whataburger in College Station for one more “#1 meal with cheese, no tomatoes, and a Dr Pepper” for me and a “#4 meal with a Dr Pepper shake” for John.

Tomorrow we will meet my college roommate, Michael, for a farewell lunch at our favorite neighborhood burger place 5280 Burger Bar and then we will meet Ella at the house so we can load the final item that we need to dispose (a TV) of in her car. Then Ella and I will head to T-Mobile to get her Internet account changed into her name (Ella has been crushing it and this is the last remaining vestige of the Bank of Dad).

That will conclude the regularly scheduled programming. Jill and I have both had 30+ great years in Austin and we will be leaving lots of people that we love, but they all understand this is the right move at the right time for us. And we want EVERYONE to come visit!

Signing off from Austin. Next update will be from Portugal HQ.

Adventure is out there!