Packing

Lew's Travels: Packing: A friend asked me how one packs for five weeks away from home. I wish I knew! This is easily the longest trip I've taken, and I'm not sure exactly what one should take. For years I've preached packing light. I've not checked a bag on an airplane in ages. This time I'm taking it to new extremes.

I've followed Rick Steves' travel programs on PBS for a while now, and I bought a couple of his guidebooks in preparation for this trip. Rick comes off as extremely geeky on TV, leading me to question why HE gets such a cool job and not me. He writes much better. Rick claims that he packs the same for two weeks as he does for two months. I'm stepping out on faith and trying his system. He packs no more than about 4 days worth of clothes, and does a little laundry in the hotel sink as needed. My clothes are boring enough that no one will notice that everything pretty much looks the same (khaki pants, variations of the basic blue or green T shirt, etc.) Less clothing means I have extra room to carry things like books, a digital camera, and a few electronic gadgets that I've bought to pass the time on the plane. It also means I'll have room to buy things...like books.