We were relatively packed and prepared the night before departure day– considering it was closely following our crazy family’s Christmas festivities. Leading up to departure day, my dad and I carefully scheduled our morning routine in order to arrive at the airport at the optimal time. We calculated the time we needed to get ready, pack the car, pick up Lars, and get to Dulles Airport in time for our 8am flight. In order to decrease the amount of my morning “get ready minutes,” I drew on my eyebrows the night before– with the hopes that they would remain in tact. Kayla laid out her plane outfit which included both utility gauchos and a well stocked fanny pack.

With a few final permitherin sprays, last minute packing and medication preparations, we turned off the lights for a quick few hours of shut eye before our early departure.

Our 3am alpine start began on a good note. My eyebrows were intact, we all had our passports, and we backed out of the driveway just 7 minutes later than intended (a difference that fell well within our timeline cushion.)

As we turned the corner into Lars’s neighborhood, the Battery Charge indicator light turned on.

*Side note: The last time this light came on in my mother’s van, the van broke down on the side of the highway and my dad and I had to perform a rainy night roadside rescue.

Lars loads his bags into the car and we make it to the end of the street before turning back to switch vans. We didn’t want to take the chance of breaking down on our way up to Washington DC. So we decided to take the “trusty red van” instead.

*Side note #2: The red van has 252,000 miles on it. Despite the occasional need to pop the hood and unplug some wires, and the constant illuminated check engine light, it’s deservingly been named the “trusty red van.” It’s zig-zagged the country, coated the coasts and it’s continued survival has defied all odds.

So imagine the 4 of us, scrambling to unload our suitcases from the blue van and repacking them into the red van, while Kayla is hacking into the bushes of Lars’s front yard. Why was she sick? We don’t know. And we didn’t really ask because our van-switch was more important at the time. We had been wondering which of us was going to get sick first on this India trip– Kayla won (or lost) and got sick before we even got to india.

The whole van-switch hubabaloo set us back another 16 minutes. Although Papa and I didn’t account for a van-switch in our timeline, we still arrived at the airport in plenty of time.

The rest of the 24 hour journey was a blur of surprisingly yummy airplane meals, comical first-time flight attendants navigating their first big trip, and sister-synchronized Supergirl episodes.

The five of us arrived in Delhi with 4/6 of our bags, and 15 days of adventure ahead of us.

Stay tuned for Phases 1-4.