Pack dilemma


 Posted by VQT.  

Photo of my overstuffed backpack and to the left of the backpack clothes I’ll be wearing.  

To borrow a quote from the Apollo 13 mission that Tom Hanks uses in the movie of the same name, “Houston, we have a problem”.  

Several days ago I posted a photo of my neatly laid out clothes and miscellaneous items.  My wise friend, Pat, said, “looks like a lot of stuff” or something close to that.  I shrugged off the comment.  Well…all the multiple pack zippers are straining to close - it does fit but does not bring me joy.  

So today it’s back to REI.  I’ll be buying a pack towel that’s smaller than the beach size towel measuring 24x54 - what was I thinking when I bought it over 2 years ago? Note: many places we’ll be staying do not provide towels.  Also on my REI list are compression (cinch) bags - they can greatly reduce the volume of clothing, towel, sleeping bag liner, etc.  Have ordered online another sleeping bag liner.  It arrives on Saturday.  I’ll post a photo of the plush REI liner versus the new liner, which is advertised to pack into the size of a “tasty sandwich”.  And I’ll post which one I decide to take.  

4 days till departure.  Ready or not we will be on that plane. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Departure Day

Image
 Map showing the Camino routes.   We will be walking part of Norte starting just to the left of Santander (route at top shown in red).  Just under the word Norte we will take the Primitivo route (shown as a light purple color) into Santiago de Compostela.  Our calculations show we will walk approximately 300 miles.   Today (Friday) we fly to Madrid arriving Saturday morning.  From Madrid we take a train for approximately 4 hours to Santander.  From there we’ll get a taxi to Santillana Del Mar where we will stay overnight.  On Sunday we start our walk    “We should all be grateful for the beauty of this world, but more, we should take the trouble to get off the bus of life and put the soles of our feet to the soul of the world and see those sacred sites with our own eyes”. Irish Poet.     Travel safely, travel soulfully, travel gratefully… Buen Camino.  
Read more

A Wet Day

Image
 Posted by VQT It was a constant misty drizzle all day.  We chose to just get damp instead of wearing rain gear.  From the time we started walking at 8:30 until we finally found an open cafe at 12:30 we did not see another Camino pilgrim.  At the cafe A from Germany (who we’d met the prior day) walked in and he also had not seen another Camino walker.   Walk today was through suburbia and farms.   We can always find something to entertain us or to take a photo.   Large farm horses - huge hoofs.  We’ve seen a lot of horses and farm horses.   Black tomatoes.  I googled black tomatoes and learned they are more nutritious than red tomatoes.  Can’t remember seeing black tomatoes in any of our stores.   Window framed with blue teal colored trim and a pot of red geraniums on the sill.   Garden art.  Stacked painted tires and wooden gardening clogs.  The clogs do not look very comfortable but we’ve seen them next to door...
Read more

It’s all good until it isn’t and then it’s good again.

Image
 Posted by VQT Goat on top of a wall.   Marker showing the split.  Gijon is on Norte.  Oviedo is on Primitivo.   Another sign showing the route split.   View of the monastery of San Salvador from top of the climb.   Camino shell.   After our 1.5 hour cafe break we were so proud of ourselves for making it up and over the long uphill climb.  Consulted our booking app to our accommodation and it showed we were closer than we thought.   Our Buen Camino app showed a much longer walk.  The booking app does not know we are on the Camino and just shows the most direct route to our accommodation.   The 2  app directions don’t always match up. As we neared our destination we switched to the booking app map which took us off the Camino route and up and down and all around until we lost faith in the directions   Called the hotel for help.   Estella said she’d come get us in her car and to send her a pin through WhatsApp of w...
Read more