.....and doin' the TSO thing, trying to decide what books to take.
We packed our suitcases last night, trying to keep what we're taking down to the minimum of what we need. It's always a challenge. I ended up with 3 pairs of shoes--and Zteen piped in, "THREE PAIRS?! Why do you need THREE PAIRS?!"
Ha! Wait 'til he gets married! I told him that he doesn't know very many women who could leave for 17 days with only 3 pairs of shoes. Many years ago I couldn't do it either, but I've gotten better as I've gotten less vain.
We'll do laundry somewhere along the way, so I got everything in ONE suitcase. OK, one suitcase and my crochet bag (which has my shoes in the bottom of it!). Can't do a long car trip without the crochet bag. I'd probably go into gibbering withdrawal.
We also travel with books on tape to listen to as we go along. We've got several days of straight driving ahead (and at the end of the trip). Books on tape (well, I guess actually Books on CD) make the time fly. Something about that narrative flow helps the time flow, too. And it beats arguing over the radio: country vs. oldies, hard rock vs. sports talk, you get the picture. We've got a wide variety of books on cd--everything from Jane Eyre to the latest murder mystery. We take more than we will ever listen to, so that if something is not striking our fancy, we can turn it off and go on to the next thing. And yes, I'm counting the ones we hear in my reading list for the year.
To actually read? I culled it to 3 books, none of which I will probably finish. Connie Willis' Bellwether, Iain Pears' Scipio's Dream and Angela Thirkell's Pomfret Towers. I'm taking Magnificat for daily prayers; you couldn't pay me to lug the Book of Divine Worship in my suitcase.
So see? I'm being minimalist in books as well as clothes!!! PapaC laughs at my "minimalism" but he oughta think back to the trips we made when we were first married. Then he'd kiss my feet. And my measly 3 pairs of shoes.
I was reading along thinking, "ONLY 3 pairs of shoes?" having just gone through that dilemma for a mere 5 days out of town. Tell Zteen from me that you are a minimalist heroine. :-)
I also went through a similar book problem, though without books on tape. My agony was to take no cookbook with me as every one I had available to read weighed around 10 pounds (or felts like it!)