What?

What to take?

This almost as difficult a question as……Where to go?

After all, what we pack in our bags will be on our backs and with us most every moment of the day and night. Thankfully, many people have taken this kind of trip before and generously shared their packing lists and lessons learned.

Initial credit and thanks goes to the Johnson Family (also from NC) who, along with their 3 children, traveled the world for 2 years. They were very kind to give us their list which we then augmented with internet research (you won’t believe how many blogs there are for trips around the world) and our own particular wants and needs. They also answered countless questions and gave us feedback on our choice of backpacks. One priceless quote comes to mind when seeing Kelli’s backpack (not the final one), words to the tune of “You poor man” were uttered. I went rather quickly and exchanged the 50l model for the larger 65l one listed below.

Additional thanks goes to REI (which really does mean Return Every Item, a policy which we used liberally as we evaluated countless items along the way), Townsend & Bertram (a great local outfitter in Carrboro) and The Great Outdoor Provision Company (a small NC chain). I’m a bit aghast at the number of trips and hours we spent in these stores.

So, to return the favor for all the help we received, here is our packing list at the beginning of our trip. You can expect an update somewhere along the way with those things that we wished we didn’t take as well as those we wished we did.

One conspicuous missing item for many in the list below is a cellphone. We’ve given that one a lot of thought and in the end don’t really want to carry one everywhere on our trip as we do back home. One of our goals for the trip is to disconnect, so a cell phone is not going with us. Perhaps we will regret that, but internet access is readily available nearly everywhere and we have a Skype phone # and voice mail to receive and make calls when absolutely necessary. We even equipped the Grandparents with Webcams so we can do a video call once in a while and maintain some connection with family.

So, no cell phone, but a laptop, iPods and Kindles. I suppose we aren’t disconnecting completely!

Health and safety is really our top concern for the next year. We have an International Health Insurance Policy that is there if we need it. The list of Medical items below is fairly extensive, but we are told that you can buy practically anything you need almost anywhere these days.

Lastly, we have a number of items in our bags that we think will come in handy. Books of course, for all of us to read and for the kids to keep up on school work. Then also, a few recreational items like a jump rope, juggling balls and a soccer ball. We’ll see if the soccer ball makes it into one of our packs when we finally depart.