“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” ~Susan Heller

I’m supposed to be writing about Travel Destinations in Montana. Clearly I’m not. I promised myself I’d turn in my 17 Montana articles by the end of today–but hey, it’s only four in the afternoon, there’s still some of “today” left, and my mind is entirely (and agreeably) occupied with my own packing list for this week’s excursion into the Idaho mountains…

Arguably my favourite iPad app is the “Packing Pro,” with its enticing icon of a stickered suitcase and my customized packing lists for various types of trips (“day-trip on a writing assignment,” “travelling with the kids”)… My globe-trotting dad always said that anticipation and reminiscence are as important to the overall experience of a trip as the travelling itself—and the delicious sense of anticipation that accompanies the act of creating a new packing-list only confirms his observation. What does this journey call for when it calls to me? Fishing tackle. My turquoise prayer-beads. The A.A. “Big Book” (we’ll be in company of some other recovering alcoholics, and a Meeting in the Mountains is on my wish-list). Flannel shirts. Mountain maps. A picnic blanket.

My mother is the original packing pro. Before her Girl Scout trip to England when she was sixteen, her troop brought in an airline stewardess (yes, they were “stewardesses” then) to give the girls packing tips, and I’m here to vouch for the efficacy of the lesson; the woman can pack a suitcase no man can lift! For our six-month road-trip through Europe when I was ten, she managed to pack for all four of us (doll clothes, kitchen supplies, camping gear, and mix-and-match red-white-and-blue wardrobes for my sister and me) in just five suitcases. She sent ahead caches of English-language books for us, but aside from the reading material, four of us lived for six months out of those suitcases. Bravo, Mother! My own pinnacle of packing feats was for a two-month visit to the Philippines when my son was a year old—necessities for three people, baby paraphernalia, porta-crib, mosquito netting, more than 200 diapers, and a “first-aid kit” that could have rivalled a small pharmacy, all crammed into two medium-sized duffels. My mother and I are probably responsible for the weight-limits now imposed by airlines on checked luggage.

Tomorrow’s trip will be by car, though, so there’s no limit on the weight of my luggage, or on my imagination. Nor need we worry about Regina Nadelson’s observation that “Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.” :)

Ha, an amusing side-note… My spell-checker is currently set to “UK English” because my travel-destination articles are at the behest of a UK car-rental agency (or as they say, “car hire” agency)… I’ve only just noticed the automated fixes of words above like “favourite”—but I think I’ll leave them. A snapshot of today’s projects…