Preparations in Progress

"He who would travel happily must travel light." - Antoine De Saint-Exupert

Travel guru Rick Steves, whom I admire and envy, writes, "In your travels, you'll meet two kinds of tourists - those who pack light and those who wish they had."
So what does light mean? Rick Steves recommends limiting luggage to 20 pounds in a backpack measuring 9"x22"x14". I admit I've never been able to do this. I need a large suitcase, a Rick Steves backpack, and another smaller bag for all my stuff. At that it takes me several days of planning and sorting and prioritizing to get everything squeezed in. Part of what I have in my large suitcase is overflow from my wife's things. She does not believe in traveling light. She believes in bringing things from America for her family. So half her luggage is gifts of clothes and food (like chocolate and nuts as if these things were not readily available in Russia).

Another sensible thing Rick Steves recommends in order to minimize the debilitating effects of jet lag is to have everything ready to go two days before ones actual departure date. Since our departure date is Tuesday the 21st, that means that I should be ready to go now. Well, I've tried to hard to meet this deadline and I'm about 90% ready to go. Tanya is about 50% ready to go. She tends to do things at the last minute. A Russian friend of hers tells me that doing things at the last minute is characteristic of Russians.

So that's my report on our preparations in process. I notice that there have been no comments on my blog. Feel free to make a comment if you read this.

If all goes well, my next entry will be from Russia.