I have to admit

I have to admit that I underestimated the time that I would need to prepare for this trip. Actually, I didn’t, because I knew it would take two weeks, but I have been unable to devote solid days to preparing. For instance, I have been taking Donner to swim theraphy every other day to make sure that he has worked through his recent lameness, and it is working, if his incessant following me around so I don’t leave him is any sign.  But I am also doing a more thorough job of preparing than I have in the past, and I am finding some interesting things. For instance, while I try to avoid trip-delaying shopping along the way by taking stuff that I might need, sometimes I err in the direction of taking less, not more.  Inevitably, though, I have to stop from time to time to pick up something that I did not plan to take.  (I never forgot to take something I meant to take.) So, I am finding that I own multiple things of the same thing. For instance, three rubber mallets, four day backpacks, three long training leads for my dogs, three trash baskets for the Defender, four winter jackets, etc. etc. etc.

 

As it is now, I will have to cancel my reservations at the splendid Samuel Taylor State Park in California for the 29^th and 30^th since I cannot make it there if I stay on the schedule I set. Or perhaps I can change them till later.  This is actually better because it takes the pressure off me to keep on schedule over the two weeks I planned that it would take me to get there.  This way, if I wish to spend more time at some interesting place along the way, or have to, as as happened,  I will. The worst case scenario is that when I get to Donner Lake, or Fort Sutter,  instead of heading west to the coast, I just might head south to the Grand Canyon again, or maybe north to Yellowstone, or who knows.  As usual, I will go wherever the road takes me, and it has not failed me yet, even when I reached the ends of the road. (There are actually signs in some places that say “End of Road,” as if one could not deduce it from the ocean of forest beyond the signs, although for some reason in Quebec the signs read “Fin de la route.”)

 

So, while I will be ready in two days, I will set off when I am 100% prepared and 100% rested, which is Rule of the Road #1. After I am finished packing, I still have one full day of work to do at my desk to prepare, including making reservations at camps I plan to stop at over the first weekend.  After that, I will make reservations one camp at a time the day before.