Getting Ready Part Two

I'm still making gear changes; I bought a new tent from REI today. My other tent seemed too heavy and had too many parts - a bag for the tent, a bag for the poles and the fly, a bag for the stakes. I was thinking it would feel like I was pulling an apartment around before long, so I opted for a lightweight (5lbs.) two person dome tent - I'll still have room to move around in with the advantage of a shelter that's easy to put up alone, with fewer pieces to put together, and everything fits in one small bag, so I save room in my trailer as well. I feel better about the load I'll be pulling, so I ask you, what's $100 for a little piece of mind?

I also bought a different spade (for digging holes when mother nature calls, you know.) I bought the first one from an army surplus store - it was collapsible and so compact but made out of steel or kryptonite or some other ridiculously heavy substance and weighed 10 lbs. I don't know what I was thinking; now I have something closer to a garden trowel, plastic and maybe six ounces. Obviously, weight is becoming very important to me as I realize I'm going to be lugging this stuff around from coast to coast for months - hopefully a trowel is enough to get the job done.

My apartment is starting to remind me of the one I had in college - I now have a minimal amount of furniture (a couch, a desk, my computer, a television) and a fridge that's mostly empty (some eggs, orange juice, a half a stick of butter, and a beer.) I've been giving things away to friends/neighbors/Goodwill pretty steadily as I don't want to have to deal with trying to get rid of everything all at once, and it makes cleaning a lot easier. I'm also trying to get used to the idea living with the bare essentials - I got rid of my bed, and I'm sleeping on my living room floor in my sleeping bag; I'm down to the clothes I'm bringing on my trip, meaning I wear shorts and shortsleeved shirts just about everyday, which can get chilly this time of year, jacket or no. I've gotten rid of all my cookware, so if I need to cook I do it over the stove with my cook kit. It's like trying to acclimate to really colder water at the beach; if you go in a little at a time eventually your body gets used to it and you swim (or if you're at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, you get hypothermia, lose control of all your muscles and are swept out to sea - try it, you'll like it!) The water here is cold, really. Hopefully I'm following the former path, and not the latter.

I've been trying to learn some fundamental Spanish for the road - I realized I'll be in states with large Hispanic populations for about a third of my trip, so it might be helpful to know a few handy phrases: Quiero una cerveza (I want a beer), Su bragueta está desecha (en los pantalones) (Your fly is undone), Tengo una fractura complicada (I have a compound fracture). Seriously (I was serious about the beer), I'm trying to learn enough to order something from a taqueria or ask for directions in smaller towns where the bulk of the population might well be Spanish speaking. And not make a complete fool of myself in the process - I'll bring the guidebook I've been using along with me to try and avoid accidentally proposing to someones daughter. Comprende?