The on again off again trip is on again. I’m going to be really disappointed if something happens and we don’t make it. I’ve spent more effort planning this trip than I did my entire couple of months wandering around with a backpack and eurail pass. The “plan” is to leave tomorrow morning from Denver, getting to Rome Sunday morning. We’ll find a place to stay for 2 nights in the city. Since I lived in Rome and Jonah’s been there before, we don’t have to do most of the compulsory tourist stuff. I’ve got reservations to take Jonah to my favorite museum in Rome (it’s small, so reservations are compulsory). I just like it because of Bernini, and my two favorite sculptures of his are there, and Jonah’s never seen them. I imagine much Pizza Rustico and Gelato. On Tuesday morning we’re renting a car (er, box-like thing that may or may not convert petrol to locomotion, “car” being a little too strong a word) from Termini, and driving to, er, North. I’ve got information on the three campsites open in northern Italy this time year. I think we’ll spend a night in Umbria, Toscana, Veneto or Trentino-Alto, then head north through the Brenner pass into Austria, then there’s a cheap campground in Liechtenstein, then a couple nights in Switzerland, then back to Italy through the lakes and we’ll drop the car off at the Milan airport Monday morning and fly home. So that’s the “plan”, not that there’s much of one. I’ll let you know what actually happened in a week or so.

I’m hoping to spend time camping when possible mostly because the dollar sucks. A cheap, cheap double room in Italy in a *hostel* is about $75. When I was there last, you could easily get a double in a two-star hotel for $50.

In other news, I got to observe a 4 hour simulator session in Denver on Tuesday. Crazy stuff, that. The most amusing moment occurred after a #3 Hydraulic system failure, which required an alternate gear extension. After doing such an extension, you’re supposed to stop on the runway and have someone come out and stick pins in the gear just in case the downlocks didn’t set correctly. This new-hire crew didn’t do that, so the sim instructor had the right main landing gear collapse on the runway, which was violent enough that I was knocked from the edge of my seat to the floor. In any case, I’m astounded at how much studying I have to do before then. Fortunately, I’m supposed to have lots of time– let’s hope they don’t spontaneously switch it to next week. I think I’ll try to get some studying done on the plane– if nothing else get my emergency procedures checklist down.