For about six weeks now, Sean and I have been counting down obsessively to our launch date. As soon we wake up in the morning, he’ll ask, “how many days?” and I’ll say “forty-one!” or “twenty-seven!” or “thirteen!” If I’m having a particularly bad day, he’ll just pat my back and say “nine more days, babe.”

Nevertheless, I don’t think either of us was prepared to actually wake up to Day Zero. We’ve been anticipating and saving for this trip for so long, it’s hard to conceive of it existing somewhere other than the future.

We’re a few days in now, and it’s almost starting to feel real. (We’ve stopped counting the days out loud, for the same reason we’ve stopped proudly reporting the contents of our savings account to each other: it’s not quite as exciting when the numbers are going in the opposite direction.) We made it to Durham, North Carolina, where we’re temporarily entrusting my mother with our pride and joy:

Two days in the car for Phoebe was, I imagine, something like having the only two people you thought you could trust throw you into a rocketship with no space training and no perceivable end in sight. Aside from a few angry naps and about five minutes in Mississippi when we bought her some tuna at Subway, she kept up a constant monologue of desperate, accusing meows. By the time we got to Mom’s, she seemed happy to make her home anywhere that wasn’t hurtling forward at seventy miles per hour.

If you ever decide to embark on four months of uncertainty and adventure, I highly recommend you start it off by spending a few days with one of the most loving and nurturing people in your life. For me, that happens to be my mom. For two days we slept deeply, ate insanely well, and even attended a baseball game at the Bulls’ stadium. This was my very first ball game (possibly the first sporting event ever that I didn’t bring a book to), so Sean had to lay out some of the rules for me beforehand using my childhood Playmobil set.

We said goodbye to Durham this morning and set off for Atlanta, where we’re staying with a generous host through Couchsurfing.com. Tomorrow we swing back through New Orleans to cash in on a luxury hotel stay, then on to family and friends in Texas before we sweep the West Coast. Stay tuned, good people!