trips.schrull.us

Almost ready to go: three rolling duffles and the “coffin” guitar case.

The traveler’s collary to Parkenson’s Law (Work expands to fill the time allocated for its completion) is that the contents of your luggage will expand to overfill either the volume of said luggage or your weight allowance… Or maybe both.  Last year we had so much technology to bring that we ended up buying a fourth LL Bean rolling duffle and extra paying to ship a fifth piece of luggage to Dar Es Salaam.  (Our fifth piece of luggage was, as always Bill’s large guitar “coffin” – everyone we visit overseas always expects him to bring it.).  It got really exciting when we added five flat screen monitors and a box of cat-5 cable when we got to Dar Es Salaam.  Through a minor miricle we were able to ship most of it to Kigoma at freight prices, but that is not an option for this year.

This year, between the weight of the tablets we are bringing and the domestic items I am bringing for the guest hostel, we thought  that we would again need to bring the fourth duffle.  We don’t…just.  The duffles have room to spare, but each weighs almost exactly 50 lbs.  The guitar case weighs less than that (around 37 lbs) despite bulging with most of Bill’s clothes, in addition to the guitar.  This is a neat trick that removes extra weight from the other bags and provides extra padding for the guitar.  It’s also a a bit of a gamble as TSA almost ALWAYS decides that they need to open and inspect the guitar case, and they are not usually very good about re-packing the clothes neatly enough for the case to be able to close with out gaps….at least the trip home should be a lot lighter:  we’ll be down at least 75 pounds in technology and domestic articles. We’ll also be down one bag:  the smallest duffle will travel home inside on of the other two duffles.

Work did indeed expand to fill the time allocated for it, but tasks have been handed off to the capable hands of co-workers for the next two weeks and the work laptop has been shut down.  Bills have been paid, itineraries sent out, data and cell plans purchased and we’ve had our traditional night before we leave dinner and check-in with our nephew/cat/house sitter.  Time to get some rest.  The car will be here to pick us up very early in the morning…..

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