The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

What do we pack for a two month trip?

What a busy day we had yesterday getting ready to leave the park. I spent most of the morning helping the guy who comes in to blow out the waterlines. He has a huge diesel powered compressor that we hook up to the various lines and have to go around opening all of the valves until all of the water is out of them. Inevitably I'm still expecting there will be some freezing damage to repair in the spring, but you can only do the best you can do. Then in the afternoon I changed the oil in all of the vehicles and equipment so that it would be all fresh and ready to go next spring.

Meanwhile Ruth was cleaning up the house trailer, and sorting and storing things in there. Once we got everything done, it was time to pack!

So, what does one pack for two months and still be able to bring it on the airplane as "carry on"...?

Here is everything Ruth is bringing. This includes what she will actually be wearing today.
  • Dress and dressy sweater
  • Two pairs of Tilley travel pants
  • Tilley belt
  • Two long sleeved Tilley tops
  • Two t-shirts
  • One sleeveless dressy top
  • One tank top
  • One travel skirt
  • One swimsuit
  • One pair of shorts/tank top for sleeping
  • Two pairs of Tilley underwear
  • Two pairs of Tilley socks
  • Two bras
  • Fleece sweater
  • Tilley raincoat/jacket
  • Paperback novel
  • Pocket Spanish/English dictionary (we need it for November!)
  • Yahtzee dice, pack of cards all inside travel cribbage game
  • Tilley hat
  • Hiking boots
  • Flip flop sandals
  • Dressy sandals
  • Pocket camera and travel tripod
  • Travel binoculars
  • Tiny mp3 player
  • Bite and sting first aid kit
  • Toiletries
  • 10" laptop
  • Sunglasses
  • Reading glasses
And here's Kevin's stuff! Again, including what he will be wearing today.
  • One pair Tilley travel pants
  • One pair Tilley travel shorts
  • One Tilley polo shirt
  • One Tilley long sleeved shirt
  • One short sleeved shirt
  • One long sleeved t-shirt
  • One golf shirt
  • One tie
  • One pair of swimming shorts
  • Two pair Tilley underwear
  • One pair Tilley socks, one other socks
  • Tilley travel belt
  • Tilley jacket
  • Windbreaker jacket
  • Sweater
  • Tilley hat
  • Hiking boots
  • Dress shoes
  • Flip flop sandals
  • Travel towel
  • Facecloth
  • Travel alarm clock
  • GPS unit (will need it for when we arrive back at the motorhome)
  • Airplane eyeshade for sleeping
  • Paperback novel
  • Electronics kit with travel adapter plugs
  • Sunglasses
  • Reading glasses
  • Television glasses
  • 17" laptop
  • Camera
Taking away the items we'll be wearing, all of that stuff fits easily into our Heys rolling backpacks. But to avoid giving it that "overstuffed" look, and so that it fits easily into carry on bins, we compact everything by putting the clothing items into large Ziploc plastic bags.

Items are sorted so that it's super easy to find things without rummaging through your bag! And the Ziploc means that you can compress the items so that they take up less room.

This is all of Kevin's clothing! Plus of course the things that he is wearing. 

So that's it! We were all packed and ready to go!

One of the ladies from town offered to come and get us and invited us to her place for dinner as well. (Thanks Liz, it was delicious!). And the park put us up at the local motel because it would have been impossible to stay the last night at the park after everything was shut down and winterized.

Room #7!

The Sunrise Inn. Nice little place, with super clean rooms!

Say hi Ruth!

And that was that. Our time here is done, and we're off on a seven month adventure! Today, we take a 6 and a half hour bus ride to Calgary, Alberta.

Not sure when the next blog post will occur, but we're going to be doing regular updates on our facebook page so be sure and check us out there as well.

Taken this morning at Cabri, Saskatchewan.

16 comments:

  1. WOW...you two have packing down to a science. I am the worst packer in the world. When I go home for three weeks at Christmas, I packed four times as much as you two. Excellent job.

    Safe travels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The last few years have certainly made us more aware of what to take and what not too. Each time we do this we seem to do just that much better. There is a saying that goes "lay out all your clothes and all your cash for your trip and then remove half the clothes and add twice the cash." :-)

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  2. Nice packing job. We're not heavy travellers either, but it was especially easy coming home from Europe "on vacation" to a house where we had more "stuff".
    Have a great trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, that would sure make packing pretty light!

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  3. We've found that there's not a whole lot of difference in packing for a week or 3 months... either way we tend to overpack. I usually wear my heaviest clothing... including hiking boots... but y'all put my packing to shame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are very right, except when you have to deal with several temperature zones in that time period. We also do the same. We are wearing our hiking boots and have layered our clothing along with a jacket so there aren't too many clothes left in the suitcase now.

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  4. When I read the title, I said to myself "as little as possible". But WoW I'm amazed that you can get those lists into a bag that can be put in an overhead bin. That's fabulous. That Tilley connection is really really helpful. Let the adventure begin!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Keep in mind Sherry that we are wearing some of those clothes that are in the pictures. This is the lightest that both Kevin and I have packed yet so we know that we are well under our weight for carry on, on most airlines and our bags are the correct size as well for most airlines. We have put the bags to the test before on the discount airlines in Europe which are some of the toughest so we know we are good to go with them.

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  5. Well, I think you guys are packing experts by now. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we just might be after this trip! Definitely our lightest packing to date.

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  6. I'm a ziplock bag packer too. I always wonder if the vacuum bags would be better but then it's only good for one pack. Maybe there's a portable vacuum bag of some kind?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know that you can purchase packing cubes which are compressible and we thought about getting some but then you are adding more weight with them. The extra large Ziplock bags seemed to do a great job and are much lighter and much cheaper.

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  7. Wait! You forgot to leave room for money!!! :cO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think we might still be able to squeeze it in there somewhere, may have to sit on the bag to do it though! ;-)

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