{"id":3907,"date":"2017-07-13T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T06:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=3907"},"modified":"2017-07-05T11:43:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T09:43:55","slug":"pre-travel-rituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=3907","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Travel Rituals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The All Important Travel Notebook Selection Process<\/p><\/div>\n

As long as I can remember, I have loved travelling. When I was a kid there was nothing more exciting that going on a weekend fishing trip with my dad or spending the weekend at Grandmom\u2019s. Later there was the uber-excitement of a camping trip with my friend Eddie or with the Boy Scouts.<\/p>\n

Ever since those distant days of young travel, I have partaken in a pre-travel ritual. And I have noticed that over the years those rituals have changed a great deal.<\/p>\n

Preteens <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask Mom where clothes are<\/p>\n

Ask Mom what this \u201claundry\u201d thing is<\/p>\n

Pack everything in house in shopping bag<\/p>\n

Allow Mom to repack sensible items like toothbrush and pants<\/p>\n

Say goodbye to siblings as though I would never see them again<\/p>\n

Teens <\/strong><\/p>\n

The day before trip lay out everything I deem important on my bed<\/p>\n

Find more stuff<\/p>\n

Collect every package of junk food available<\/p>\n

Make and tick things off of my checklist (nb: this was the first appearance of the checklist, a thing which would become ubiquitous in my life in general, as well as my travel life)<\/p>\n

Realize en route that I had forgotten to say goodbye to anyone<\/p>\n

Twenties <\/strong><\/p>\n

Choose backpack, as had found that travelling is much easier if only use one bag and it fits on your back<\/p>\n

Lay out everything I want to bring, cut it in half to fit in one bag<\/p>\n

Find toiletries, such as soap, deodorant, condoms, toothbrush and paste<\/p>\n

Call parents to let them know I\u2019ll be away for a while<\/p>\n

On the morning of the trip, check bank account and wallet, wonder how long I can make $6 last and then wonder about this rumor of kindness of strangers<\/p>\n

On the way out the door, grab a book<\/p>\n

Thirties <\/strong><\/p>\n

One month before trip, check bank account and wallet, stop eating food<\/p>\n

Three weeks before trip make packing and to-do lists<\/p>\n

Two weeks before trip check weather and political climate at destination, edit pack list<\/p>\n

One week before trip, arrange people to look after my cat and plants<\/p>\n

One week before trip, go shopping and do laundry<\/p>\n

Four days before trip, make list of medications, creams, and ointments I\u2019ll need<\/p>\n

Add foot spray to list above<\/p>\n

Two days before, do a practice pack, unpack, pack again, after two dry runs, heavily consider pack list, edit<\/p>\n

Look up destination\u2019s spider population; obsessively worry about destination\u2019s spider population<\/p>\n

After carefully eking out a notebook so as to ensure I will need a new notebook for the trip, narrow down choice to five or six notebooks, do same with books<\/p>\n

Day before, curtain call pack in the morning, afternoon pack while watching comfort TV (Seinfeld)<\/p>\n

Day before, choose travel book and notebook<\/p>\n

Say goodbye to cat in nearly tearful farewell, call friends or send goodbye messages.<\/p>\n

Check oven, toaster, faucets, and plugged-in appliances 20 times<\/p>\n

Forties <\/strong><\/p>\n

One month before trip, check bank account and wallet, consider life choices<\/p>\n

One month before trip, write up a first draft of pack and to do lists<\/p>\n

One month before trip, read two books that exemplifies personality of people at destination<\/p>\n

Three weeks before trip, watch documentaries on destination<\/p>\n

Three weeks before trip, visit doctor, inquire about required vaccinations, get them, get optional ones too<\/p>\n

Two weeks before trip, put my affairs in order (i.e. tell my mom I am travelling and get insurance on my bank card<\/p>\n

Two weeks before trip, order travel insurance<\/p>\n

For next two weeks, tell people about benefits of travel insurance<\/p>\n

Two weeks before trip, second draft packing list, add separate list for medicines and toiletries based on plausibility of destination causing stomach ails, constipation, diarrhea, or hemorrhoids, take notice that this list is longer than main pack list<\/p>\n

Foot spray<\/p>\n

One week before trip, do laundry, clean house, sit cat down and tell her I am leaving for a while, scoop her response out of the litter box<\/p>\n

Three days before trip, make final pack list, but allow blank space for last minute edits and called audibles<\/p>\n

Two days before trip, pack while watching comfort TV (Frasier) and sipping coffee<\/p>\n

Two days before trip, carefully consider all meals and alcohol, nobody needs to have the shits 7 miles above the world or on a bus<\/p>\n

Day before the trip, pack again, but carry full bag around the flat to ensure comfort, clean fridge, floors, bathrooms, in case of death would like visitors to have a good (unrealistic) perception of how I kept my flat on a daily basis<\/p>\n

Google customs and habits of those at destination so as not to piss them off<\/p>\n

Day before the trip, do not eat or drink anything but salad, chicken, and water<\/p>\n

Leaving day, make bed, say goodbye to cat, kiss cat, cry, check oven, toaster, faucets, appliances 40 times, take out trash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long as I can remember, I have loved travelling. When I was a kid there was nothing more exciting that going on a weekend fishing trip with my dad or spending the weekend at Grandmom\u2019s. Later there was the uber-excitement of a camping trip with my friend Eddie or with the Boy Scouts. Ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/19758347_10154532635951123_1418805914_n.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-111","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3909,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3907\/revisions\/3909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}