Muddled

     Departure minus five days and counting.  Counting socks.  Four for you, four for me. It's a matter of family honor and tradition to travel light, one carry-on size bag per each, easy to haul on trains and up hotel stairs.  On this walk, our goal is to take the minimum amount of gear necessary to get by, without being fool hardy or putting oneself at risk.  The  principle is clear; the application is muddled. And the last minute state of mind seems to lower inhibition about buying stuff. 

     A kind and knowledgeable blogger advises gaiters and more maps.  I order the maps and I talk to the familiar faces at REI about gaiters.  They actually don't know much about gaiters at REI. but gaiters look very cool on cowboys and in old military photos.  And evidently they are just the thing for tramping through bogs on rainy days.  (More about that later perhaps.) 

      Packing is complicated by the fact that for us the walk is actually only part the first of a longer trip to continental destinations yet undecided. Perhaps we'll end up mailing home boots and gaiters, and reinvent ourselves in Europe.  Catch a ferry to Amsterdam or a cheap flights to Lisbon. Or maybe we'll go look for family names on tombstones in Scotland.  It's that spontaneity thing.  

      What about the Ipad ?  Can he come?  I would really miss him if he stayed behind.  But he'd need protection from rain and theft. And maybe we should break technological ties to the outside world?   Embrace ignorance.  

       And books. Last  time we went away for six weeks, I took ten books.  I know, I know, why not a Kindle or a Nook?  I was actually hoping that trip would be the justification for getting one.  But it turns out, the books I want to read are not available in electronic format, or if they are, they cost $9.99 vs. $2.00 at the Friends of the Library used bookstore. And once read, there's good karma in leaving a paperback behind for someone else.

      This is a muddled post, a muddled mind.