Preparing to travel

I am someone who likes to rehearse and prepare for the future. That means, when I have travel plans, I like to start packing a few days in advance. It gives me time to think about what I forgot to pack, time to decide I really don't need this or that, time to come to terms with the trade offs between taking enough and traveling lightly.

I would love to travel lightly! But I would hate to not have enough. I have experimented with traveling lightly when I've gone to an adequately urban area so that I could buy something I needed if I realized I really shoulda packed it...

Soon I'm traveling but there will be no convenient store to run to for anything! And I need to bring my own towel and bedding. Already I'm looking at the medium large suitcase and wonder if it will hold towel, bedding, helmet, chaps, riding rain coat plus the usual from jeans and socks to toiletries and wheat-free snacks.

Traveling lightly ain't gonna happen this time.

My ideal of traveling lightly is getting everything I need into a nifty pair of travel cases I own. One is like a backpack in which fit water bottle, notebook, small pillow, wallet, paperback, snacks, reading glasses, cellphone and something else which I remember at the last minute. The other case is a roll along but small enough to fit under the airplane seat or in the overhead bin. Valuable because I can travel without having to check any luggage!

Ok, so this trip I will be checking luggage. Now to plan so that I check almost everything (saves me lugging it around) but keeping enough with me so I can survive should my luggage not arrive on the same plane or day as I will. How can I hold the image of everything going perfectly when I'm duty bound to my need to prepare, hence have to look at all these likely possibilities?!

If only I could go with the flow of airplane travel like I can go with the flow of a horse. Hmmm. That's an interesting thought! Gosh, I might never get to Arizona! Erase that thought!

Ok, travel is like life. Plan what you can, flow with what you can tolerate, and manage the freak outs so that later damage control is minimal.

I'm going to bundle up and go hang with the horses. Tomorrow is supposed to be a warmer day, and if that's true, I will ride!