Mrs. Teabody Favors Trip Prep
On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way.- Willie Nelson
Two weeks ago on a Thursday around noon a woman drove her Honda Pilot into the BB&T parking lot and parked. As she emerged from her car, she noticed her friend walking across Lincoln Way West carrying a purple suitcase. Almost simultaneously three other cars appeared with one car parking along the street and the others in the parking lot. From each car a woman emerged also carrying a suitcase. All the women met and chatted animatedly at the back of the Honda and the door popped open. One by one each woman placed her suitcase inside the hatch doing some judicious shifting all the while talking in an animated fashion, laughing and clearly enjoying the process. Once the traveling bags were satisfactorily ensconced, all the women took their time getting inside the Honda and in a few seconds time all the doors closed. Now there is nothing especially noteworthy about a group of women going off for a little traveling holiday but what happened next changed the narrative.
Mon Dieu! What just happened? Had some unresolvable discord made it impossible for the women to carry through with their travel plans? No, Gentle Reader. Had you been watching, you might conclude that the women had either had an argument and called the trip off or that wearied by this modern world they had gathered for a five minute fantasy trip, which is weird but not necessarily insane. Neither of these conjectures is correct, however. This was trip prep. When six female friends decide to take a ten-day trip together in Ireland, there is and must be trip prep, and this little exercise was just to see if luggage for six women for a ten-day trip could fit into the cargo hold of a Honda Pilot that was taking us to Dulles. It was also a heads up that there would be no more room than what was inside their suitcases as once in Ireland they would be on the road every day, moving from city to city, crawling over slippery rocks and uneven pavements, standing next to precipitous ocean-side cliffs in ripping WIND and looking at some of the most beautiful scenery in the world (sometimes) in torrential rain. If you have traveled through Ireland, I don't have to tell you.
Many, many years ago one of Mrs. Teabody's very well-traveled friends expressed her dismay over an extended trip through Australia and New Zealand. Her conundrum was packing for temperatures ranging from 40 degrees to as high as 90 degrees. Those of you who escape Pennsylvania winters have also struggled with this. If you are heading to Mexico in January and flying out of BWI where it is sub freezing, you will emerge from CUN airport to an ambient temperature of 90. How do you deal with this clothing-wise?
Most folks I know leave their winter coats behind in their cars in long-term parking or at a park and fly and freeze their butts off waiting for the shuttle just so they don't have to deal with a coat.
Yesterday I worked in the garden in the afternoon giving up when the temperature hovered at 88. Dripping sweat, I passed my suitcase which has been lying open in the living room for two weeks while I wrestle with wardrobe decisions. I noted within it the black and grey warm sweaters, the black jeans, the hooded raincoat and nearly passed out at the thought of bundling up. Trip prep means packing for the destination.
Ever since making the commitment to take this on-the-road-again tour, we six have gathered to spend time together to learn each other's travel styles and to define all our travel goals -- to get on the same page as 'twere as part of trip prep. We have also spent time examining the history and culture of our destined country, watching films, reading books, doing online research. Those of us who have already visited Ireland cannot wait to be back in the bosom of her hospitality. Those who have not been have long longed to visit. We are all ready to submit to the charms of Ireland to visit, to look, to engage, to learn. Through these trip prep meetings we have come to know each other's strengths and idiosyncrasies.
This is a bright and resourceful group and even though I sometimes struggle with finding my wallet inside my handbag, I know that if I need anything from an abacus to a zither, some one among my five companions will produce it.
Our bags are more-or-less packed; our houses and fridges have been sorted; our means of contact with home have been established. We have reminded each other not to forget our passports, our Euros, our gifts for our host. What lies between us and Ireland now are a few hours and a journey. It is, as Jane Austen says, "that sanguine expectation of happiness which is happiness itself." I hope you will plan and take a trip soon, Gentle Reader. It is a sometimes funny, sometimes exasperating, but always illuminating experience. Slante!
Comments
Post a Comment