LUXURY ITEMS

My brother David and his wife, Carmyn are planning on meeting Kami and I as soon as possible on the bike trip. They are leaving Texas the moment their school lets out, and driving to Washington with their homemade tiny-teardrop trailer tagging along. We are so psyched to have them along with us for part of the journey---they’re excellent campers and along with providing support, they’re more fun than a barrel of monkeys. We’re not sure where our paths will cross, but are hoping it will be in the Cascades. All along, we have anticipated how wonderful it will be to hand off our 50+ pound panniers to them to carry, leaving us to just ride our bikes without all the gear. Then, my brother told me that he would carry “luxury items” for us! If we would get them to Texas early he would throw them in with his stuff. Frankly, it made my head spin! LUXURY ITEMS! That I wouldn’t have to carry on my bike, but would have access to for a couple of weeks. What to take, what to take. At first, he said, “like your pillow…..” and I thought about how great it would be to have my little buckwheat pillow under my head each night. Then I thought about how sad I would be when he took my luxury items away from me! So, I’m in Texas, and I have brought my bag of luxury items to give him. It’s a mind-blowing experience when you inventory your “luxuries” and it amounts to:

Hairbrush, pillow, pajamas (don’t ask), tennis shoes, pants with a zipper, mango lotion, eye drops, vitamins, tiger balm, black currant tea and extra socks and underwear. Oh, and my most major of all luxury items, a BOOK. I’m not sure when I learned to read, but I was reading all my older brothers’ books when I was in first grade---and since then, I’ve always had at least one book I was reading. Early on, I decided that I wasn’t going to carry a book on my bike, but I was sad to think about spending three months adrift. Then, I realized that I could download a book to my iPod, and if I have enough charge left at the end of the day (doubtful), I could just listen to someone read me a book at night! Unfortunately, something tragic has happened to my iPod, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to download a book to it before the trip. I’m so grateful that David will bring a book for me, but choosing the book for this trip was one of the hardest choices I’ve made regarding the journey. I hope I made the right choice.