In and Out and In and Out(1)

You are here, May 2016

This is a driving trip. Iceland has a very nice Ring Road, Rt. 1, which pretty much circles the island. For an island, it’s pretty big - at 39,000 sq miles, it’s the 18th largest in the world. For a country, it’s pretty small - it’s the 177th largest in the world, about 3/4 the size of New York State, and 1/6 the size of Texas. The coastline is about 3,000 miles, with the huge size being driven by the craggy coastline, with picturesque fjords all around the country. The Ring Road itself is about 830 miles, which gives you an idea of how deep the fjords are. Our hotel-to-hotel driving is 950 miles according to Google Maps, plus we’ll be doing sightseeing in many places.

Checked and Carry-On, May 2016

 



We're staying in eight places on this trip - the first two and last nights in Reykjavik, and six other stops over eight nights. Plus a short night on the 5 hour flight to Reykjavik. So a lot of in-and-out. A lot of unpacking and packing. A lot of incentive to keep the quantity of things we bring both as low as possible, and keep them organized as we move along. Part of the challenge is the difference between packing for air travel, and packing for the road trip.



For air travel, you separate your goods into checked baggage and carry-on baggage. The carry-on is limited, as we all know, to one piece that goes in the overhead, and one piece that goes under the seat. It needs to contain the fragile stuff (cameras), the irreplaceable stuff (prescription drugs) and anything with a lithium battery (phones, tablets, cameras, etc.). Of course, you should also never pack anything which is thief bait in your checked baggage, but that's mostly accounted for already in the stuff you need to bring on the plane with you. Everything else goes in the checked bags. Including especially the stuff you can't carry-on: liquids, pocket knife, tripod - anything which could be used as a weapon (according to the TSA).



Most of our weather-related clothing will be in the checked bags, although I'm planning to wear my hiking boots on the plane - they just take too much room in the suitcase.



Once you land, the organizational strategy changes. This trip has only three days where we are neither checking in or out of a hotel. On all of the other days, we'll be leaving a hotel in the morning and checking into another one sometime later in the day. So we will want to divide our stuff into those things we need during the day, and those we need only in the hotel. The key objective here is to have ready access to everything you'll need for the next 6-10 hours without having to dive into your big suitcase.

Stays in the car, May 2016

Start with outer clothing. I think we're likely to keep our jackets, hats, gloves, boots, sunglasses(2), umbrella, etc. either in the car or on our bodies all the time. So they won't have to be packed until we're ready to head back to the airport.



The tripod, which takes a lot of space in my suitcase, will likewise stay out for the entire trip. Probably it won't even come into most of the hotels, but live in the car overnight.



Sally likes to keep a last-out bag with her toiletries and other stuff, so she can pack those at the last minute. This allows me to load the car and often perform the check-out process while she's still getting ready for the day, and then she just brings that bag with her as we leave.

Worst-case carry, May 2016

My camera stuff gets split into two sets. One set is the gear I expect to be using each day, which will most often be a small bag with my main camera, the three zoom lenses, filters and batteries. The rest - the backup camera, the less-used lenses, all the charging gear, etc. - can go in my suitcase or a separate bag for the day. The tripod, as mentioned above, will be in the car.



 



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(1) "Squeeze Box", on The Who By The Numbers, words & music by Peter Townshend

(2) The sun does shine in Iceland sometimes.

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans