Every trip begins with a list of things you have to have for your journey. It doesn’t mater if it is for an overnight visit or, as in my case, a two week over 2,000 mile epic trek “*There and Back Again.”
Preparations included a new storm door for the dogs so they would not have to be crated all day through the weekdays… Nope, I couldn’t ever do that to my little furry friends!
You saw this door in a previous post when my washing machine flooded the mud room. 😉
And the procurement of a new sound device that works with my smart phone to play all my favorite music (saved on said phone) through my radio, because my disk player is kaput and I couldn’t afford a new one. Bob found this for me and it came the day before I left. It is amazing how much music you can load onto your phone! I never listened to the same songs/albums the whole trip. Oh yes, and a bonus feature is that you can talk hands free on the phone when it rings!
I planned for over a month, made lists both
mental and on paper, then finally I was on my way!
Bob took the day off to help me load up the truck and to see me safely on my way. I drove down our little street, over to the highway, and was just over the state line when it hit me:
I have forgotten the **self inflating air mattress!
(My octogenarian Aunt Eva doesn’t have a spare room, much less a spare bed.)
Thankfully, that little jaunt was only about 25 miles round trip. Bob met me in the drive with the air mattress, linens, my special pillow, and more hugs and goodbyes, then once again I was on my way.
I made it all the way to Mount Vernon which completed the first leg of my journey. So far so good! Of course my cousin Bruce, the truck driver, had said I could make it from home all the way up to Iowa in one day… Well, good for him I say! I’m not willing to mentally or physically kill myself trying that kind of trip. 😉 I know my limits and it just isn’t in me.
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FOR MONDAY: When a certain technology dependent traveler finds herself stranded in the Hotel parking lot with a broken GPS device.
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*There and Back Again, the title of Bilbo Baggins Memoirs – from the Lord of the Rings
**A sincere thank you to my In-laws Kathee and John for the, erm, permanent loan of that item! It has served both Bob and I well on several occasions over the years.
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Well, according to WP this is my 500th post.
Doo-dah!
Life on the Farmlet 
That’s why I’m a ‘permanent packing list’ addict. You may absolutely accuse me of being obsessive compulsive, but I have laminated lists for different kinds of trips, and I cross things through on them with a grease pencil so I can wipe it all off and use it again. And again… I love your cool new device, but I like quiet when I drive or ride on the bike, so the Husband listens to music on his smart phone through the bluetooth intercom on our bike helmets, and in the car we alternate between quiet and music, by negotiation 🙂
Kate, if I continue to travel and I hope to, then I should take your advice to heart! For me the music is essential!!! I’m like that little baby in the car seat in back… The rhythm and motion of the moving vehicle will very quickly lull me to sleep. Listening to all my favorites from my impressionable 60s and 70s music tastes will keep my brain actively engaged and I can safely drive over long distances. Quiet times? Yes! But those are saved for stops to look, explore and record in photographs. Regrettably, I did little of that this trip, because the main event was my chance to go see my Auntie Eva. ❤
Isn’t it amazing how we function differently? I find constant music/sound tiring and distracting – great if you need to stay awake, but I can’t have ‘noise’ all day long. But I do agree with your choice and era of music!
Actually, it is usually very quiet here at home, unless I am house cleaning, then the music goes on and UP. Energize me! 😉
Thats a good idea, a permanent wipe off trip list🙂
Or in my case, several of them, depending on what kind of trip: caravan, car and tent or motorbike and tent!
Lol wow one for each
😉
A brave new world.
Yes, exactly, Tom!
At least you weren’t far from home when you remembered the mattress! I can’t wait to hear more about your adventure! Don’t make us wait too long. 🙂
Yes I was very grateful for that, Lori. I wouldn’t have been able to find a new mattress like the one we have. It self inflates and then you flip a lever and it deflates itself flat as a pancake! I can roll it up to fit into a little duffle bag. Next installment is on Monday. 😀
Yippieeee! 🙂
Not exactly the best start to your epic trip but you could have remembered a whole lot later! Sounds like you’re having great fun but the broken GPS device is worrying…
Annie, it wasn’t, but that was not so bad as I was still very close to home. The GPS… well more on that this afternoon. 🙂
I’d better hurry and comment before the next installment arrives, hadn’t I? I laughed at the suggestion that you make it all the way to Iowa in one day. It’s true that I used to drive Houston to Kansas City in a fourteen hour day. It was easy enough to do, especially in the summer, when the days were long. Now? I don’t try it. I usually go as far as Muskogee or McAlester on the way up, and Paris, Texas on the way home.
The struggle not to forget the important things is real! Most of the time, it’s a toothbrush or something else replaceable that I forget, but believe me, I go over the list time and time again. Spring and fall traveling are the worst, because it’s so easy to forget just how different weather can be two states north. But we cope.
I love music when I drive, too — I enjoy listening to music that suits the area, too. In west Texas, I’ll listen to Western swing. In Louisiana, it’s Cajun music — and so on. I started thinking about what I’d listen to in Iowa — that’s a mystery. Probably 1960s rock’n’roll, just because that was the music of my time growing up there.
You know, Iowa is a mystery, Linda. You drive for miles and miles in an ocean of crops and then hit large urban populations. I was waiting for little mom and pop towns dotted throughout, but no… perhaps if I had been brave enough to travel more off the highways I might have found them?
I think I am with you on the 60s music! The music we loved in our youth is imprinted on our brain and in our blood for life. Makes me cringe when I think about what kids listen to these days. (Did I just channel my mother?)
Oh, there are lots and lots of those little towns, but you’re right that you have to get off I-80 to get to them. In that sense, it’s like Kansas. I had no idea Kansas was so full of interesting places until I started poking around on the back roads.
I thought there must be. Next time I will not be traveling with an agenda and a time limit. And I will have this trip under my belt and be more comfortable too.
A really fine little Iowa town that’s not too far off the interstate is Pella. It’s a traditional Dutch town, with wonderful Dutch food and bakeries, lots of tulips, and even a working windmill!
I just looked Pella up on Google Maps and there were dozens of pictures there. Definitely a place to see! So glad you shared this with me, Linda!
Oh, I do love following along on a journey! Can’t wait to hear more, especially since you got the “trip glitch” out of the way already by leaving the air mattress at home).
Well, yes and no on that trip glitch, Laurie… 😉
Gee it’s good that you were only 25 miles from home when you had to do a turn around for the air mattress. That was pretty good luck. I trust that you had a good visit with your aunt.
Those truck drivers can drive 1000 miles in one day but that is pure punishment and I’ glad that you did not try that which would have resulted in extreme fatigue.
Love the dog door but I just don’t install one because I can’t have my dogs running the fence barking at the neighbors. I’d have to run out and retrieve those rascals and then crate them. Doors work for many people and I wish that I could use them. Maybe some day….
I understand about the doggie doors and all the barking, Yvonne. We would have never considered it before my trip. But then, we do have an advantage here. Our back yard is just pasture on the other side of the fence. 😉
What a life saver, you didn’t have to go the night without a matress after all🙂 yeah squeezing the drive within one day could very well be strenuous. Oh nobyour gps broke?
Yes. It died. 😦