Life Reduced to Three Bags

Last month was practice. Today (well, today three days ago) began the real thing.  The next ten weeks will be a combination of vagabonding around Europe and retreating in Provence.  Our road trip to Quebec – Saratoga - Oneonta and our sun trip to Saint Lucia gave us a sense of what we'd need.  The return through New York (plus Saratoga for Susan) – Northampton – Woburn allowed us to refine the essential contents of our lives to one suitcase of 50 pounds or less and two carry ons.

We'll be wearing these clothes and using this gear for the next ten weeks, so we were careful about our choices.  I ditched the all-purpose sport jacket that had been so carefully folded up in dry cleaner plastic for the last month, never used.  I really needed a light jacket though, and found a nice black microfiber one at Kohls, just up the street from our base of operations, the Red Roof Inn in Woburn.  With our house rented out, we camped out at the Red Roof Inn in Woburn, which became our base for organizing, reorganizing, packing, repacking, shopping, and taking care of last minute business.  This turned out to be a great spot, as the DSW shoe store, TJ Maxx, and Kohls were all nearby.

Also discarded was the heavy black work shirt that I'd been wearing over a parade of T shirts for the last few weeks (when not in St. Lucia).  Lighter button down shirts would be more versatile as the weather warmed.  New socks were needed.  And two new pairs of shoes – one all purpose black Rockports (Rockports are amazing) and one pair of simple open-toed no-back sandals that can double as slippers (and that I can wear with socks, like a real European).  It tried to replace my Merrel hiking shoes with a new pair, but they just didn't fit quite right and I took them back.  Merrels are also amazing, but the chemistry just wasn't there this time.  I was dejected, but I'll make do with the old Merrels.

I found that my repertoire of button down shirts was dark.  It was going to be spring for heavens sake, so I went back the closet and found the blue and white striped shirt that I wore almost every day the last time I was in Provence.  And found another all-purpose utility shirt from Old Navy in the palette of white.

Down to the wire, I had to come to terms with the camera gear.  I was pretty sure I wanted to replace my three-lens repertoire of the 18-55 and 55-250 Canon kit lenses with a single 18-200 zoom, but I'd been reading that the longer zoom was heavy.  I was sure I'd want to carry the 50 mm prime lens – I'd come to love that lens for its simplicity and huge aperture (1.4!).  I'd been dragging my manual Vivitar flash and wireless triggers with me over the whole trip, and hadn't used them once.  And I hadn't been dragging a min-tripod, but thought I'd regret it if I didn't – photography at night can be a revelation.  Finally, I was unhappy with my carrying system – camera and lenses tossed into a school backpack seemed like a recipe for disaster.

So off I went to Hunt Photo in Melrose, to check out the potential for a new lens and was treated to a good half hour of advice from Don about all of these issues.  I talked myself out of the new lens.  It was heavy.  And almost $700.  So I bought lens hoods for my two zooms.  Don talked me into the tripod instead of the flash, if I had to choose between them, and I agreed, but I ended up throwing in my Canon 380EX flash and pillow diffuser too.  Don's best advice was about carrying gear.  I really didn't want to buy a new bag, and I didn't think a new bag would do the trick anyway.  Don suggested that I probably had photo bag inserts lying around that I could fashion into some sort of protective system.  Or, buy some foam at a craft supply store to put in the bottom of my bag to cushion it.  I was all set to buy some foam, even traipsing around to Lowes trying to find some.  Fortunately, though, I didn't, and while rummaging in the basement of the house, found an insert system from the urban camera bag that I no longer used (and which Eleanor permanently borrowed to use as a purse).  It had three slots of perfect size – one for the camera, and one for each of my lenses.  It cradles the gear snugly and fits perfectly into my day pack.  And there's still plenty of room in the daypack for a jacket, food, guidebooks, whatever.  This is a much more satisfactory solution than the Lowepro backpack I have which has a great camera carrying section but very small section for the rest of my stuff.  Big thank you to Don for spending time with me to clarify what I'd need.

By the time I've posted this we've been in Rome for a couple of days.  Internet connections not as convenient as in the States, plus....there's lots to do!  Stay tuned for the Roman experience...