i groggily made my way downstairs, and picked out a few articles of clothing. i figured that, in all reality, i wasn't going to change my clothes very often, so i didn't pack much. i put on some ports (or shants, whichever you want to call those pants which you can unzip into shorts), and a sudbury valley school t-shirt. i decided, to wear a bathing suit as underwear, for a variety of reasons, a few of which would be that it would be well ventilated, easy to clean, and, if i ended up in a situation where i wanted to swim, i'd already be prepared.
i packed only a few other articles of clothing; my ghostbusters t-shirt, a few long sleeved warm shirts, and a navy blue pair of pants, which i all stuffed into a backpack, along with toiletry sorts of things. i gathered together everything i was going to put into the car on the front porch. this was a 2 hour process. i was combing the house for any and all items which i thought would be necessary, helpful, or pleasant on the trip, like books, a hammock, and random other things. after everything was on the porch, i decided i really, really didn't feel like organizing this stuff, so i just threw it all randomly into the car.
despite my carelessness, it took a good half an hour to toss it all in. i figured we could pack more as i picked everyone up tonight. all of a sudden, the stark realization that it was 2:30 in the afternoon dawned on me. i really had better get going, i thought to myself. i finished packing a few last things. the camcorder, and all of it's video tapes. the plan was, was to video tape the entire trip, and on our return, edit it into a really sweet documentary. so, a month and a half before the trip, i purchased 140 videotapes for the camcorder, equalling a total of 280 hours, which should be plenty sufficient for the trip.
i also tucked my laptop and digital camera into the back of the car. the digital camera my family had gotten for free when we got DSL from earthlink, and i had never used it before, so i didn't expect much out of it. the laptop, i was planning on keeping a journal in, every night. i also threw in my canteen, something i had bought specifically for the road trip the week before. i figured it would be a good thing to have, so that i wouldn't die of thirst as we were straggling through the desert, or some similar reason. i got in my car, blindly backed out of my driveway, and sped off westwardly.
