packing Archives - The Incredibly Long Journey

We’ve gotten our travel gear together and I think we’re finally ready to embark on our incredibly long journey. All I have left for possessions are carefully rolled up, folded, and stuffed into my hiking backpack. Everything else has been sold, given away, or left behind. No more Xbox. There goes my sword collection. I’m sure Ashleigh’s going to miss all her dresses and shoes. But what a pain it would be if we had to lug wheeled suitcases across, say, the Scottish Highlands; it’s just not sensible. So, trying to be as minimalist as possible, we’ve carefully selected practical articles of clothing and a few personal items. We also have our camping gear: our tent, sleeping bags, tarps, etc. as camping will be a major part of our trip, and even though it may weigh us down I think it will get a lot of use.

If anybody is interested in ever going on an extended backpacking/hiking trip, we’ve spread out all of our gear and written a list for you to look at to perhaps give you some ideas.

I thought I’d write a little about how I’m feeling looking at the clock ticking down toward the start of our adventure. The best way to start is maybe by detailing what we have been up to the past couple of weeks.

About two weeks ago, we started seriously packing up our apartment and putting our furniture up for sale. I knew I would have a hard time with it, there were too many factors working against a girl who is sentimental about literally everything (I actually had a huge struggle about whether to keep a single broken earring that I got for super cheap in a place I can’t remember any details about, but was somewhere in Japan and therefore might make it worth holding onto). Since we’re leaving for an extended period, it made sense to minimize what we were keeping in long-term storage (aka, my parents house :)) so I’m doing my best to only hold onto things I know I’d regret letting go. So, after I’d packed up about two boxes of “Donates” and a box of “Keeps” I slumped on the floor super bummed out and took, like, three days to recover. I’m such a delicate flower, I know.

Packed for Europe

Boxes