April 5 - Packing a Suitcase

I am packing our suitcase again. This time Lyle and I will be going to Italy. From what we have been able to learn on the Internet, the temperature in Rome will be somewhat warmer than here in Canada but with the possibility of showers. I have packed the suitcase accordingly. I have two basic outfits of layered clothing and have added a light rain poncho and travel umbrella for each of us.

I usually begin the packing process fairly early on. I lay out all the clothes that I would like to take along and then start taking away anything that is not essential. Packing lightly achieves two aims and both concern luggage management.

First, it is far easier for me to remember and identify what it is that I need from a smaller collection of objects in a case – mostly clothing – than it is for me to rummage through a larger mass of scattered mismatched and random items. Because we tend to travel fairly often, I have a routine of arranging things in a suitcase in a particular order.

Secondly, it is far easier to move about in a crowded airport or train station when there is only one piece of luggage to think about. Certainly when I am travelling alone, I need one hand for my cane and the other for the suitcase. If I need to, I wear a small backpack so that my hands can be free for those purposes. When Lyle and I are travelling together we will still take only the single suitcase. In this way, he can handle the luggage on one side and I will walk on the other side with my cane. In busy and crowded places, we can both do without the extra stress of additional luggage.

The one thing I pop in my checked bag that isn’t on the list for the average traveller is an extra folded white cane. I have never had to use my “spare”, but I take it along as a precaution should the one I carry with me become damaged or broken in some way. Do you remember me telling you about the white cane user I met in Hawaii? Her support cane was broken when security personnel insisted on putting it through the x-ray machine. My white cane is the one item on my travel list that is not easy or convenient to replace at a moments notice in an unfamiliar place.