We’ve been home about two weeks. We got back in the late afternoon so we unpacked the car right away. There was a lot to unpack, we’d been living out of that car for six weeks.

Anything that needed no further handling was put away immediately. We’re particular about our equipment, we make a point of storing it clean and dry to make sure there will be no surprises next time we use it. So we unpacked the tents (we travel with two, a large one for longer stays and a small one for one-nighters) and the sleeping bags from their stuff sacs. We checked the camping kitchen stuff and gave our two coolers a good scrubbing.

After downloading our 2000+ photos, doing several loads of laundry, repacking and storing our camping gear, we’re left with the hardest part of all – the maps, guidebooks and literature we collected along the way. It still litters our house, some in the front hall, some in the living room.

Ken and I love books and maps. The ones that guided us along on this trip have become imbued with the memories of our travels, along with such incidental objects as admission tickets, hiking trail maps, beer coasters, business cards, promo flyers and information booklets.

We need to sort through them all to decide what to keep and what to discard. In a way, by procrastinating, we’re keeping the trip alive. We had such a wonderful trip, it was extraordinary and we loved every minute. Thanks for sharing it with me.

P.S. The next one is already booked, but that’s a story for another day.