Well yesterday was VERY successful. We went shopping and bought all the last minute things, and then came home and got about 95% packed (just some last minute laundry things remain and we will be done.)Now the difficult part…packing the electronic stuff.
Since most of this stuff is 'of value', we don't want to put it in our checked baggage in case it 'disappears' or the bags get lost.
My ‘toys’ are; a lap top, 35 mm SLR digital camera, mini-camcorder, digital voice recorder, international cell phone, 120Gig portable hard drive, binoculars, and an 80Gig Wolverine ESP hard drive with built-in MP3 player, photo card readers, and picture viewer . (And Janna
will have a ‘backup’ small digital camera with her). Each toy takes batteries, a charger, and connection cables. When I fill my back pack with all my ‘toys’, and peripheral equipment, it weighs 32 pounds…and that is a LOT. And it can be problemati
c taking all this stuff through airport security if it is all packed together. So I have divided all my ‘stuff’ into four small nylon zippered mesh bags.One bag is for the digital camera stuff (chargers, back-up batteries, card reader, and extra memory cards) another is for the video camera (extra batteries, charger, remote, TV connection cables...for viewing in our cabin/room...and blank tapes), the third is for the backup rechargeable AA and AAA batterie
s (and a 'rapid' charger) and the fourth is for the misc. stuff, including; phone chargers, internet cables, hand crank flashlight, Wolverine back-up battery and charger, international electrical plugs and a power strip to plug in and charge all this @#$%& stuff at the same time. When going thru security I can then just put the computer and all the bags in a couple of trays and it becomes a snap.Traveling domestically in the past I have literally ‘crammed’ all this stuff into my comp
uter padded backpack. 32 pounds was only an issue for my back. But now we have to consider the carry-on constraints of Lufthansa and Swissair. The good news is that connecting from United to Lufthansa on the way over we are still subject to United’s regulatio
ns. But not so coming back: One carry-on each (plus a ‘personal item’), max weight of 18 pounds.One of the things we bought yesterday was a new roller ‘tote’ to replace my backpack as it specifically met the international dimension constraints, has a padded compartment for the lap top and enough room for a change of clothes for each us (in case the checked bags are delayed).
So, all this stuff will have to be divided between my new ‘tote’, my PacSafe ‘fanny pack’ , and Janna’s carry-on. And just in case that is not enough, I bought one of those ‘safari type’ khaki colored photographer vests to wear that has about 30 pockets to handle any ‘over-flow’. (I gave up tying to not look like a goober a LONG time ago!)
Two more 'get ups'!!!
