[Kyle]Well, the time came for me to leave Phoenix. Maryanne left a few days later. In preparation for our return to Scotland, It was necessary for us to try to get everything we had brought with us and everything we'd acquired in Arizona (mostly boat parts and supplies that are difficult or expensive to get in the UK) back into our bags. Maryanne wisely went to Goodwill and bought a giant “throw away” suitcase so that we had some extra room for everything.
The next step for us was to pull everything out of every drawer and closet to make sure nothing was missed and put it in a big pile on the middle of the guest room floor. It was a BIG pile. It was overwhelming. Just trying to figure out how to sort the pile into smaller piles for each bag was a real challenge, AND there was no room left on the floor for the sub-piles.
I started on one side and Maryanne started on the other. I had a bit of a panic attack when after a few minutes, I looked up and saw that Maryanne had already filled her big camping backpack. I swear, that huge pile was still exactly the same size. There seemed to be no way this was going to work.
We kept at it for a bit longer and, eventually, the bags were almost full and all that was left on the floor were a few scraps that would easily fit. We ended up with two big 38lb. backpacks, 2 20lb. day packs and – the whopper – the Goodwill bag at 82 lbs. 82lbs. is a bit over the limit for airline baggage (70 max), but Maryanne assured me that, with a little rearranging, we should be able to make it. The thing is that I had to go to work for the week, so I only had room for one of the big packs in addition to my usual crew luggage. That left Maryanne with the remainder. I have managed to book her all the way from Phoenix to Glasgow on one ticket, so hopefully, she’ll be able to check most of it and won’t have to see it until Glasgow, where our next challenge will be to fit it into what I’m sure will be a tiny rental car. After that, we’ll have to get it all into the water taxi and then lift it the ten feet or so up into Footprint. I suppose that’ll make up for not having a gym handy.
[Maryanne]Ahh, packing. Kyle and I tackle this activity from entirely different perspectives and applying entirely different methods. I was not on board with throwing everything on the floor in a big pile - but we survived. Kyle took a picture which I'll post sometime soon here. It was Not easy to have two cooks attempting the same dish in the room (so to speak). I knew all along that we would be just fine, but Kyle was stressing more and more as we approached the "trial packing exercise". We really hadn't bought much, and we'd dumped some of the things we'd arrived with. AND we'd brought a giant suitcase to cover the excess (so big that my little suitcase fit inside it so we didn't have extra bags to check in, just extra space). Kyle panicked before, and during, and afterward was in shock that I was right all along (when will he learn?).
I managed to get the suitcase down to 69.5lb (max being 70lb), and arrived at the airport with two bags to check in, and one to carry aboard.
We are off on our way and looking forward to being reunited with our boat, and crossing our fingers that there are not (or at least not too many) unexpected new problems to deal with when we get there. I've been very interested in the Oban weather for the last few weeks and I can tell you it is COLD there...
Once we arrive, first job is to kick on the heating and dig out the thermals! Once we've defrosted and settled in, I'm sure we'll post again.
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