Gearin’ up!
POSTED BY JONATHAN
We just made our last big purchase, a tent from REI where I work part-time. I feel so blessed to have stumbled across that job fair back in September (not too long after I committed to going on this trip!) – my benefits include half off REI goods so the tent was only $85. Yesterday, Christine and I rode our bikes to the store (testing her new gloves, which worked very well). The weather here is just beautiful and it’s really the first of spring. Tons of purple flowers were shooting up from the mossy sidewalk strips and we rang our bells through the crisp morning air to greet the Spring.
After a delicious lunch, we gathered our clothes and started packing up for the first time. We split up the tent between us and I had fun rediscovering the features on my pack and deciding how to use them. In my excitement I left a few clothing items out, and didn’t pack our toilettries either so my pack weight was envied slightly by Christine who successfully used her entire pack capacity (it’s a small pack). My great source of fretting was finally put to rest however. I had been worried that the size of my pack would preclude me from being able to carry-on our flights (we can’t afford lost luggage in NYC, nor would I be thrilled to pay 40 Euros per item to check it to Barcelona). After packing nearly all my clothes, sleeping rolls, tent and miscellany, I was relieved to find my large capacity pack was reduced to a compact and manageable size.
Sharing great excitement and giddy abandon, we bounded out the door with our packs and boots to walk around at the local park. We decided that we would start our journey in a similar way – by simply walking out the door for a leisurely afternoon walk downtown, taking in a last good look at our wonderful home city, before hopping on the light rail towards the airport!
After unpacking and making note of some items we still want, Christine suggested we take a quick ride to the thrift store to look for sandals. I was a bit pessimistic about finding anything but I kept that thought to myself. Christine, as it turns out, has a bit of a sixth sense about things, and lo and behold there were a really comfortable pair of Columbia sandals for $4! Christine also got a pair of back-up sandals – a very fruitful 15 minutes to say the least. The sandals are great! Our gear list is now whittled down to a few non-essential items which means we’re pretty much READY TO GO!!!
Tags: State-side, Tag Index
seeingspain
March 1st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Yes, I’m well aware of that ‘6th sense’ of hers…
That, combined with your down-to-earth practicality will stand you both in good stead while you travel.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hi guys! Christine, i went through all my books, and found one for you. It’s Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales, The Happy Prince and other stories. Have you already read it? I think I already told you about how Theresa and I gave up buying books when we left Japan and have pared our collection down to only those books that we actually want to own…but I had two copies of this one…I’m sure I got the second one in case I ever needed to give it to a friend!