Oh Man- Oman

In less than than five days we will be having our fist vacation. There are so many new travel opportunities that await us in this new corner of the world but since we are still just settling we will stay close by and do an 8 day road trip to the neihgboring Country of Oman.

It sounds amazing, it has so much natural beauty, coastlines and mountains and some very interesting culture. It is close and we can drive to the capital in just five hours. Which will be great. It is so well traveled that there are many travel guides about road tripping in Oman.

In order to prepare we have been gathering goods and advice both which led us into the homes of two friendly 60-something year old couples. Spending far more time than wanted cruising down good old memory lane.

Couple number one- British couple retiring and moving away from UAE and selling all their camping gear- hence our connection. So, somewhere between exchanging the cash and loading the camping gear in our truck we ended up watching too many of their home videos of their road trips to Oman.

When is the last time you watched a VHS? Well if it has been a while you will be blown away by the poor quality- flat light, dull colors and the rocky sensation of every little bump. But the lack of quality didn't hold this couple back, rather we fast forwarded, ejected and rewinded quite a few tapes- I saw so much footage I started to wonder if maybe we should just go to another country since I feel like I just went on their trip. Nice people though- and so is my husband - so nice I think that it is why we end up in these situtaions.

Which leads me to couple number two- Canadian folk who were graciously invited us over to share maps, routes and must see spots- which was both thoughtful and helpful but the last hour was agonizing, looking through every snap shot that their digital camera captured, every grain of sand, every camp spot, and what seemed like every rock. I never have tried to send a mental message so hard in my life. I was standing - you know the "okay we gotta go" stand and Aaron was fully engaged. I just kept thinking...
Aaron stand up....Aaron stand up......Aaron stand up....Aaron stand up......Aaron stand up....Aaron stand up......Aaron stand up....Aaron stand up...... To be fair it was after a full day of school and then chaperoning a school wide Halloween Festival.

So we've seen a bit of the country already but not yet with our own eyes, we are loaded with gear, maps and books and we are more than ready for a vacation. And then we will torture you with our photos but not VHS's.