Packing lightly? It's not an option

We weren't planning to stay in the States for more than a couple of weeks, so we thought we'd pack lightly. It was a good thought, but it didn't work out.

We started with just one suitcase, but I soon had that filled to capacity and I hadn't packed my shoes yet. We checked the weather in Las Vegas … warm days and cool evenings, so we needed jackets, too. With much reluctance, David hauled out one of the big duffels on wheels. We always bring stuff back with us, so we'd have plenty of extra room. Once I tucked away my shoes, jacket and a sweatshirt and David added his clothes, the available room seemed to dwindle significantly. We remember traveling in Peru for six weeks with just daypacks and the clothes on our backs. What happened to traveling light?

Now it was time to load the electronics. We obviously have too many gadgets. We had to bring two phones … one for the US and one for South Africa … both of which needed chargers. Then we each took a laptop … with power supplies. Then came our iPads. We managed with just one charging cable, but thought a DC adapter would be good in case we wanted to charge in the car and we needed an AC adapter, too.  I had my camera, of course, with extra batteries and a charger. We would overnight in Dubai on the way back, so we needed an adapter to fit UAE outlets. David needed his electric razor and its charger. We were bringing our electric toothbrush which also requires a charger. Then, we thought it would be reasonable to take a hard drive back with us for downloads. I thought I'd take my photo back-up hard drive, too, so I'd have photos available for writing blogs and articles. They each needed a different cable.

As we trudged up the dock lugging all out gear, it wasn't pretty. Too much stuff all crammed into a suitcase and a duffel and a backpack and a carry bag and a purse … you get the picture. Traveling light for us? Not an option.