Across the USA

Today we leave New York City bound for Africa.

A good beginning.

More to come.

Jib, Marci and Skye

Maximum Legal Carry On

Maximum Legal Carry On

When packing for a year long trip that includes latitudes of muggy dripping heat, altitudes of air thin and cold, and rain of all textures, what do you bring? A carry on.

There’s no way to prepare for all contingencies, so stay light and move fast. Maintain ability to catch a last-minute flight without checking bags in Malawi after getting stuck in traffic. Keep weight low to toss baggage onto slow moving trains in India. Stay compact to tie bags onto pack horses in southern Patagonia. When staying at a friend of a friend’s house in South Africa, one doesn’t want to show up with heavy, massive duffels filled with reams of unwashed cloths or unused gear (a friend once schlepped a full sized crab pot and accessories to eastern Siberia anticipating the mouth-watering king crab off the coast of Sovietskaya Gavan).

Packing the carry on for the year’s odyssey is good sustainability 101 practice: Take what you need. Need what you take. No more. No less. Let the constraint of the bag’s size force you to innovate.

Today we say goodbye to Bug-Z, our now-part-of-the-family Vanagon. Now the carry-on commitment becomes actualized. Although space constrained, Bug-Z had all the amenities: 2 double beds, cooler with iced drinks, food and snacks, music from the 70s and 80s that we played on the blaupunkt tape machine, I had my old stumpjumper mountain bike, marci and Skye had razor scooters, plates, cups, bowls, there was even a kitchen sink (although we didn’t use it). We had it all.

Letting Go


It’s been a year of heavy lifting to realize this point of minimalism. The Vanagon is but the middle stage of our rocket ship leaving orbit. Packing up the house, finding Mike and Marne, putting affairs in order with Blu Skye, saying goodbye to family and friends, this was stage one. Today like an apollo moon shot, in order to get out of orbit we have to jettison mass, goods, gear, stuff.

Bug-Z's Pit Crew


So goodbye Bug-Z for now. The carry ons are still full and we now have 3 nights in Manhattan, NY before flying to Cape Town, South Africa to see if further culling is necessary.

Saddest of the Pleasures

Lewis and Clark ghost here
Bike ride aside Teton shadowed mighty Snake
Crowd adorned Major Sights in Yellowstone - 5 minutes off path nobody
Ascend and descend passes, past elk and bear
Jam with movie star under bright night big sky
Almost booted out of Roosevelt National Park in the Northern Bad Lands
Marci and skye experience Mare ultrasound - no baby - while papa logisticizes
Road weary to green mosquito lake in Minnesota called Leech after shopping local farm corn at park rapid walmart
Diesel overflow. again. And this aint bio. clean bugs off the window.
Sit up straight. keep breathing as the big trucks move on by.
World at 65mph used to be fast, not so anymore.
Still miles roll by
There's a lot of grass out there Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin
and hospitality
Not too many VW's in this part of the world. "nope. not here," says the woman in Duluth, MN, "we ship too much iron ore."
This is USA Car Country
As if on cue, on bridge to Wisconsin fussy german temperature gauge shorts - back to Minnesota, eat tacos at the brewpub and stay in the no-tell motel
Try again tomorrow
Tompkins once told me to read The Saddest Pleasure
Its a travel story
Just like this one
Still smiling