By this time tomorrow...

...I hope to be about halfway to Petersburg while listening to Bill Bryson read In a Sunburned Country. I also hope that my bike will not have fallen off the back of my car, since the rack wasn't made with my car in mind evidently, and I'll be triple checking the straps every time I stop.


...I will have remembered at least one thing that I forgot to pack even though I've obsessively checked and rechecked my mound of supplies. Hopefully the forgotten item will turn out to be something relatively easy to replace.

Fig 1: Pile of Supplies

...I will begin to think about what I'm going to get for lunch and that will in turn make me wonder what the devil I'll do for dinner and I'll have time to pick up food items. That will make me wonder if I'll be able to find a decent grocery store (I already checked; there is no Trader Joe's for 50 miles). Then a whole host of other speculations, concerns, and hopes will come to mind, which I will have to silence by listening to Mr. Bryson wax sarcastic about Australia.

Why do I pack so much stuff?

I have almost finished packing in preparation for my trip to Virginia. I have a few last odds and ends to gather, but I'm not leaving until Sunday so I have a little time. My original intent was to travel light and quick. I'm finding however, that the pile of stuff I have to put in the car has grown past what anyone would call 'light'. Part of me would love to head to Petersburg carrying only a backpack and a duffel bag. That is difficult though since I want to take along my bike, a laptop, a small stack of books, and few small items. I also have (perhaps overly ambitious) thoughts of doing a day or three of hiking while I'm in VA, so I have quite a bit of my backpacking gear out. I feel like I'm heading to college again with my car packed full of stuff that I might not use. When I traveled in Europe the rule we lived by was: 'Pack only what you think you can't do without; Then cut that in half'. I'm not sure I want to go back to that, but I could probably unpack a few things without too much inconvenience. 

For anyone who's interested here is what my small stack of books includes (more or less my summer reading list).
The Wise Man's Fear
Stranger in a Strange Land
A Sand County Almanac
Dark Star Safari: Overland From Cairo to Capetown
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
The Mountain People
The Art of the Commonplace


On a completely different note I'm going to be looking for a church while I'm in Petersburg so I suppose that will be an adventure in itself. I'm not sure how my schedule will work out, but I'm hoping to make it to services once a week. In all likelihood I'll be trying at least a few different churches and I'll post my reviews here.