I’m in the final trip countdown. Less than a month until Shannon and I set off to Russia. However, despite all of this I still have a ton to do. And now, that I’ve gone public with my trip I can share my ever growing to do list.

 Get Visas:

• China
• Russia
• India

Despite all my complaining about the Russia Visa process, we actually already got our Russian Visas. So score one for the good guys (us- if that wasn’t obvious). My passport is currently at the Chinese Embassy awaiting a China Visa. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed.

I’ll be sharing full details about the visa process in another post.

Buy Tickets:

• Flights to Russia
• Flights from Moscow to St. Petersburg
• Train ticket form St. Petersburg to Moscow
• Trans-Mongolian Train Tickets

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had to plan a fair amount of the Russian portion of our trip in order to meet the visa requirements. This including booking most of our transportation so that we could prove our entrance and exit dates. As it turns out, the cheapest international flight was into Moscow. We then had to buy local plane tickets to St. Petersburg. After our visit there, we will take the train back to Moscow before catching the Trans-Mongolian.

Right now, we’ve booked everything except our train tickets from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Notify Work

The cat’s out of the bag at work – more on that later.

Lease my apartment

Our trip is long enough that it didn’t make sense to hold onto our apartment, but sadly our lease wasn’t up. That meant we had to find someone to take over the lease. Luckily that wasn’t too hard and we had people lined up to sign a new lease within a few weeks of posting the ad.

Move out of my apartment:

• Book moving van
• Reserve apartment elevators
• Donate/sell things I am getting rid of…

This should be a task…

Cancel my cell phone contract

My cell phone bill is a large monthly cost and it didn’t make sense to hold onto it while on my trip. I need to call AT&T and cancel my contract before the trip. I’ve made sure to avoid upgrades that would extend my contract so that it would be easy to cancel for the trip.

Replace camera on my iPhone

So, if I am canceling my cell phone plane, why do I need a camera on my iPhone? Well because the iPhone is still a great tool when traveling. It will still have wifi access – so I can check my mail, browse the web, etc. I can also take quick photos and videos using the iPhone and it’s a lot smaller than my camera.

I scratched the lens on my camera a few months ago and had put it off forever because I thought the repair would be expensive. Luckily it was only $30. Score.

Buy new camera

Cancel Netflix account

Go to the dentist

Determine the electronics “situation”

• iPad
• Netbook
• Kindle
• Computer
• iPhone

More on this later, but basically I have no idea what ‘tect’ gear I’m bringing on this trip. Obviously not everything listed above…but some combination.

Select luggage – backpack or wheeled suitcase

Same as above – not sure which backpack or suitcase to bring on the trip. More on this later.

Book Everest Base Camp Expedition

Pack for trip

This also promises to be not fun…

Cancel my renters and car insurance

Get shots and medications

Cut my hair

Reach Savings Goal

As might be obvious, this trip isn’t free. I started planning back in November and since then I’ve been able to stock away about 90% of my savings goal. I have one more month to cover the rest of my goal and get ready for my trip. I’ll share more on this later.

Forward mail to parent’s address

Backup all photos and music

Buy external hard drive

So that’s it for now. Is there anything I am forgetting? What is still on your RTW to do list?