canyonwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canyonwalker) wrote2022-08-08 10:49 am
canyonwalker) wrote2022-08-08 10:49 am
Entry tags:
What I Forgot this Trip (It's a Doozy!)
Pacific Northwest August Travelog #5
Retrospective
Often as I wrap up trips I check on how much stuff I packed that I didn't use. Unnecessary stuff is wasted space and weight, and some magazine articles I've read estimate that the average traveler packs as many as 7 pieces of clothes they never wear each trip. But there's also a flip side to packing mistakes: forgetting something you actually do need!
I've often joked that "Every trip I forget one thing" when it comes to packing. Of course that's not a hard-and-fast rule. There are trips where I miss packing nothing. But if nothing else, "Every trip I forget one thing" is a fun rule of thumb. I even test myself as I'm leaving, "Okay, what did I forget this time?"
Again, the answer is often nothing. And sometimes I do forget to pack one thing but it's minor and turns out to be unnecessary anyway. For example, when I traveled for a trade show a few weeks ago I nominally forgot my swim trunks. I remembered that when I arrived at the hotel and rode the elevator up to the 17th floor; there was a poster in the elevator of their pool. I didn't have time to use the pool that trip, anyway, so it seems like a technicality. But I wish I'd gone through the conscious thought during packing: "Should I pack swim trunks? No, I'm not going to have time for the pool."
What I forgot this trip, though, was a doozy. I forgot to pack underwear! I realized it Friday morning in the hotel as I got dressed for the day. Not having time to go shopping that morning I put on the previous day's pair. I was just going to get sweaty with a full day of hiking anyway.
Friday night, before checking in at our next hotel, I stopped by WalMart to buy underwear. It wasn't out of our way as a) the store was literally right on our route, and b) we were buying a few groceries there anyway. But I sure felt chagrined for forgetting to pack something so basic.
Retrospective
Often as I wrap up trips I check on how much stuff I packed that I didn't use. Unnecessary stuff is wasted space and weight, and some magazine articles I've read estimate that the average traveler packs as many as 7 pieces of clothes they never wear each trip. But there's also a flip side to packing mistakes: forgetting something you actually do need!
I've often joked that "Every trip I forget one thing" when it comes to packing. Of course that's not a hard-and-fast rule. There are trips where I miss packing nothing. But if nothing else, "Every trip I forget one thing" is a fun rule of thumb. I even test myself as I'm leaving, "Okay, what did I forget this time?"
Again, the answer is often nothing. And sometimes I do forget to pack one thing but it's minor and turns out to be unnecessary anyway. For example, when I traveled for a trade show a few weeks ago I nominally forgot my swim trunks. I remembered that when I arrived at the hotel and rode the elevator up to the 17th floor; there was a poster in the elevator of their pool. I didn't have time to use the pool that trip, anyway, so it seems like a technicality. But I wish I'd gone through the conscious thought during packing: "Should I pack swim trunks? No, I'm not going to have time for the pool."
What I forgot this trip, though, was a doozy. I forgot to pack underwear! I realized it Friday morning in the hotel as I got dressed for the day. Not having time to go shopping that morning I put on the previous day's pair. I was just going to get sweaty with a full day of hiking anyway.
Friday night, before checking in at our next hotel, I stopped by WalMart to buy underwear. It wasn't out of our way as a) the store was literally right on our route, and b) we were buying a few groceries there anyway. But I sure felt chagrined for forgetting to pack something so basic.
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~Sor
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