What's With All the Fuss About Packing?

We were sitting on the deck waiting for it to get dark enough to look for meteors and just talking when the topic turned to all the fuss we were making about packing for this trip.  It's not our first multi-week trip,  and none of the earlier trips seemed to be so consumed with packing. 

The first trip to Alaska we took a car, tent, sleeping bags, and other camping gear, and the rest of  the space was taken up with some clothing and books, a camera.  The second trip we outfitted our van with a mattress and camping gear, again clothing, books, cameras, and even a hammered dulcimer and lap harp.

Going to Indiana, we took a camper, but still our main packing consisted of clothing, books, some field guides, binoculars, cameras, and a laptop.

This trip we are taking a 29' 5th-Wheel RV.  We've had it for five years and it's stocked with kitchenware, medicine-chest items, cleaning supplies, linens, and the other things we  store in there for monthly trips.  It's pretty much ready to go except for food.

So why all the fuss about packing for this trip?  We've made lists, and lists of lists, carried out boxes and bags and armloads of stuff for the past two weeks.  It just might be that we have cupboards, drawers, closets, cabinets, and other storage areas and if we've got 'em, we'd better fill 'em. 

Some of the fuss centers around the season and our hobbies.  I knit.  I'm not a fast knitter, but I turn out a fair number of items each month.    And in the fall, knitters get excited about warm laps of knitting bolstered by a warm beverage, a good audiobook or movie, and some quality knitting time.  Fall also brings the certainty that this year, all of the holiday knitting will be finished well before Christmas morning...not like last year.

So, what to take for a fall trip?  I'm thinking 6 pairs of socks, some hats, a few pair of felted slippers, a couple of birthday and Christmas gifts, and there's a cute little bouncy flamingo toy.  Too much?  Not enough?  How do I decide now what I might be drawn to knit in 3 weeks?  Space isn't a problem, so I've packed them all.

To compound the problem, a dear friend gifted me with spinning wheels and a loom, plus a huge bag of wool roving.  I can't possibly leave new hobbies behind for a couple of months, can I?  So, I'm taking some wool and a couple of drop spindles.  Maybe the Louet S10...I'm pretty sure it will fit in the closet.  Okay, I am sure--I checked.  I'll leave the loom behind, but if it was already warped, it would be on board for sure!

Bob also has a few hobbies.  Ham radio activities are one thing he wants to concentrate on this trip, so the radio, antenna(s), and assorted other items are already wired in, mounted,  packed, and ready to go.  He has extra coax and toroids.  There are tools for assembling and for repairing and for modifying. 

There's also woodcarving.  And wood-turning.  I'm not one to say that a half-dozen projects might be stretching the limits, now am I?  Plus chisels, gouges, grinders, whetstones, wood...but, you know, we have drawers!  Fill 'em up.

Bob did get that mini-lathe for a reason, didn't he? 

So, enough fussing.  We're packed and ready for whichever way our fancies take us.  Time to fuel up and hit the road.

Are We There Yet?

We've been planning this trip for about seven years.  It's not that we are slow planners, it's more that other things came along and delayed the start of the trip.  But we're ready now, we've spent the past few weeks doing all the exhausting last-minute things to keep everything running smoothly while we are away, packing, sorting, deciding just how much yarn is too much to take with us, and why does that pesky noise keep obliterating the radio signal, and can we survive without daily, let alone hourly, internet access. 

We're down to the last last-minute items...wrapping presents for a birthday we will miss and hiding them for a surprise treasure hunt, buying postcard stamps from the actual post office because our usual postal outlet doesn't carry them, halting the mail and newspaper, working out details to pay a few bills that are not online or paperless. 

In addition, the original trip was designed for a year.  We know we can't do all of that in a few short weeks, so we are distilling the must-see places and events into something that approaches possible.  It's amazing how many books, articles, websites, maps, guides, and word-of-mouth tales go into planning a trip.  All the while, we keep reminding outselves this is just ONE trip, not the trip-of-a-lifetime, and what we miss this time through, we can always go back and see it later.

So, no, we're not there yet.  But we're getting there.