David again, with a long post inbound. Evans seems to be drowning in work recently, and it's been over a month since the last update. Our Kickstarter was very successful, thanks to a lot of very generous donors. The Bear (otherwise known as Jeremy) and I helped to pledge enough to reach our goal, and since then, Evan has been buried in numbers, dates, and equipment, getting everything prepared.
Our Kickstarter page is a little out of date, and so is the blog, since we've had a few major developments in the last few weeks. Our dear friend Zoë discovered that in order to graduate on time, she will need to take classes this summer, one way or another. She is currently waiting to hear back from an application for a summer program in Costa Rica, which would be a fantastic opportunity. We were, and still are sad to find out she would probably not be joining us, although there is still an undetermined chance she could fly out for the last few weeks of the trip.
We spent some time trying to figure out how to replace her, and Evan has been talking to Erin Miles, who is very interested (although still not committed, I might add). Hopefully, she'll join us for the first half or so of the trip, before leaving us, as she gears up for a trip to India. After that, it looks like my girlfriend Sammie will be flying out to meet us after she returns from backpacking/work in Europe. Final logistics are still cloudy, but we're pretty excited to have new people on board. Of course, we still have a spot (although it would be a tight squeeze) for Zoë, in case she will be able to join us.
Lastly, as a result of the new crew, we've had to shift some dates around so that we can utilize particular cities for the airports. We've pushed back departure about 2 weeks, and should be leaving around June 4th. Plans are to be in San Francisco for July 9th, Portland on the 20th, and beyond that, we have an open return.
We've got about 2 months before we leave, and it looks like we will be wallowing in anticipation, especially once all the logistics are worked out, and our prep/research is mostly finished. Further updates will show up as they are warranted, and another big thank you to everyone who donated to the Kickstarter.
-David
