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| Dr. Buzzy, I Presume |
Packing for a trip always brings back some good memories of my travels with Buzzy. (Remember the Steinbeck book Travels with Charlie? I may write one some day titled Travels With Buzzy.)
One of the main things I learned from traveling with my Dad was to always travel light. That old tip to pack twice, once to see what you had and then a second time to discard things you didn’t really need, Buzzy had been doing for years. Of course he always had room for his Black Velvet. God knows how would have fared under today’s restrictions of not being able to bring more than 3 ounces of fluids.
Another trick I picked up from him was something that he told me about regarding someone he had traveled with who threw away clothing as he went. Although Buzzy himself did not do much of this, simply because he didn’t believe in throwing things away, I started doing it and it is a good way to lighten your load as you travel. Pack old clothing items you no longer need or want. Wear them on your trip and then toss them as you go.
I took the above photo in 1999 at the Victoria Falls’ memorial to Dr. Livingstone. Had to smile when I read the following explanation as to why Livingston was so successful as an explorer:
The qualities and approaches which gave Livingstone an advantage as an explorer were that he usually traveled lightly, and he had an ability to reassure chiefs that he was not a threat. Other expeditions had dozens of soldiers armed with rifles and scores of hired porters carrying supplies, and were seen as military incursions or were mistaken for slave-raiding parties. Livingstone on the other hand traveled on most of his journeys with a few servants and porters, bartering for supplies along the way, with a couple of guns for protection. He preached a Christian message but did not force it on unwilling ears; he understood the ways of local chiefs and successfully negotiated passage through their territory, and was often hospitably received and aided, even by Mwata Kazembe. (From Wikipedia.)
Pam and I are taking a trip thru the Panama Canal which has been on my list of things to see and do for some time now. Thanks to the many features of Blogpost, I have pre-posted several things that will continue to appear daily for your viewing pleasure. Whenever I do this however, I always keep my fingers crossed that nothing too bad will happen on my trip. (Not too sure how humorous it would be with my plane going down on the day that I posted something about how much I enjoy flying.)