I’m heading on an extended vacation in Sydney, Australia and Phuket, Thailand for a few weeks… or at least that’s the plan. It appears that I need Hurricane Gustav to cooperate a little. My wife, being in the military is on notice that she may be necessary for the relief work. I guess no one is willing to take a chance given the Hurricane Katrina. It’ll be interesting because my wife is more of a health educator vs. a dispensing pharmacist at this point – I don’t think there will be much of a physical need for her to be there.

If they do call her in though, it’s likely a loss of $5000 or $6000 for us. Not that I would travel without her, but since we are using the military flights for part of our travel, I would be ineligible for them without her. We’d have to start canceling everything and I doubt that we’d be able to. Getting refundable connecting flights and hotel rooms were twice as much, so we decided it wasn’t worth it. Why pay double when there’s just a sliver of a chance that you won’t be able to make it. She has never been deployed against her will in the ten years she’s been in the military.

Provided we are able to go, I will be doing some writing from road. I’m hoping to write something once or twice a week. In addition to that, I’ve had authors from some very good sites contribute their writing to help me out.

If you’ve ever been to Sydney or Phuket, I could use any tips of things to see or do… places to eat… all that jazz. We have a couple of tour books, but I’d definitely love to have a little direction.