Has anybody been backpack shopping yet? I determined today that it can be exhausting…here’s the story.
I’ve been looking for quite a while and had tried on a couple of different packs at a couple different stores just to get an idea of what I wanted, so my mom and I trekked 2 hours across Michigan this morning to the nearest REI to check out their selection (which is quite large and has some really nice packs). During the course of the 2 hours that we were in the store I probably tried on about 10 different packs and found
none that fit comfortably or were large enough to carry stuff around in for a whole year.
So we came back home, went to a small local store that I had been in and tried a brand of pack that REI doesn’t have, tried the pack on again just to make sure it was as comfortable as I thought, and bought it.
Next time, I’m just going to go with my gut and buy something local first withouth having to drive a few hours to figure out that it really is the best thing.
Oh, if you’re wondering…it’s a Deuter pack (Aircontact SL 60 + 10). (REI just started carrying Deuter packs, but nothing that big).
Now the blanket part…I’m making this really cool t-shirt blanket because I have
tons of old t-shirts. I got to go fabric shopping yesterday so that I could find something fun to put on the “back side” and randomly found this sweet panel of fabric that is a
world map. It’s pretty much the coolest thing ever. So now I just have to learn how to sew well enough so that my blanket turns out.
I was wondering if any of you think it would be a good idea to have a portable world map to take along with us for the trip…because I can probably pick up another panel of that fabric. It might be fun for us to keep track of where we’ve been, but also to point out to kids (or adults) where we’re from and where we’ve been and things like that).
