Everything we own in just one bag? Yeah, right…

HANOI, VIETNAM – When Melanie and I first started planning to sell everything and travel the world, we thought we would each take just one carry-on suitcase so we’d never have to worry about lost luggage or hauling around too much stuff.

We read everything we could find about traveling light, and what you really need to bring when you travel.

There’s a ton of advice out there, and it really boils down to what YOU, the traveler, plan to do.

Our own packing lists went through  several revisions as we pared down our belongings and planned our getaway.

At a major retailer of outdoor gear in Seattle we got some advice from a couple of mature salespeople who had themselves traveled extensively.

“I would go with an Osprey Ozone 46-liter backpack or an Eagle Creek Load Warrior carry-on sized rolling suitcase,” said one of the seasoned travelers.

So Melanie decided to get the rolling suitcase; I settled on the backpack.

With our decision made, I set about shopping online for the best price I could find on the backpack. I finally found one priced somewhat below the Osprey list price, a return that still had the original tags.

When the pack arrived in the mail, I tried it on for size. It had very comfortable shoulder and waist straps, an internal padded laptop sleeve, and enough pockets and lash points to manage everything I needed to squeeze in. Perfect!

But the more I thought about carrying 40 pounds or more on my back everywhere we went, the more doubts began to creep in.

For the last several years, I’ve had chronic low-back pain. And more recently my right hip has bothered me, especially after standing or walking for a while. An extra 40 pounds (or more) constantly pushing down on my hips and knees as we traveled would certainly add to those pains. The backpack was seeming less and less like a smart idea.

Time for Plan B

I quickly decided to go with plan B; Mel and I would get matching Eagle Creek rolling bags.

The rolling bag would be more practical, I reasoned. No constant extra weight on my joints. No hassles trying to maneuver my camera while wearing a humongous pack on my back (I like to take lots of photographs as we travel). Pulling a bag along behind me (that could stand on its own while I snap photos) would certainly be a smarter decision.

So I listed my new backpack for sale on eBay and started looking for a good deal on two Eagle Creek rolling bags.

By now, we had learned that international carry-on size limits are a bit smaller than domestic limits; we would need to find 20-inch bags instead of the 22-inch ones we saw offered everywhere.

As it turns out, the smaller bags are not as widely sold as the domestic carry-on size, so that meant less competition and higher prices. Oh well, we need what we need.

After buying two 20-inch bags, we started loading them with what we intended to take with us on our travels. Whoa, this was going to be tight… But we figured we would just do without some more of the things we had been planning to take along “just in case.”

A weeklong trip to visit family in Arizona provided the maiden run shakedown voyage we needed to test our notion of what we absolutely had to have on our upcoming journeys.

We’re gonna’ need a bigger bag!

It didn’t take long to figure out that we needed more room for our stuff. We decided to add one large Eagle Creek bag – the 32-inch Gear Warrior – to accommodate the overflow from our two smaller bags.

Another online quest for the best price, a quick charge to the credit card, and our suitcase arrived in the mail a week or so later.

“This should do nicely,” we thought. The extra bag would provide plenty of room for all our other must-haves. Melanie and I would take turns hauling it around.

In the final week before our departure to the United Kingdom, where we planned to travel for a couple months over the summer, we had intended to pack our bags four or five days before leaving, just to be sure we had everything we’d need.

As it turned out, the myriad of last-minute tasks and errands kept us from packing until the VERY LAST DAY.

There it was, almost noon on Wednesday, with our departure scheduled for early Thursday morning, and as Melanie and I tried to cram all our must-haves into the two carry-ons and one large rolling bag, we realized we still needed room for more stuff. Mel hadn’t even started packing her clothes! We were going to need another 32-inch suitcase.

Down to the wire

A quick call to the outdoor gear retailer to make sure they had the Eagle Creek model we wanted, a hurried drive to the shopping mall 40 minutes away, a full-price purchase (ouch!) on our travel credit card, and a couple hours later we were back at the house, frantically throwing the last of our belongings into our van.

We would have to finish packing when we got to our friends’ house, where we planned to spend the night before catching a train at 8 a.m.

With our packing finally complete, we fell into bed sometime around midnight. After a few hours of well-earned sleep, morning coffee and a hurried breakfast, we made it on-time to the train depot and set off to see the world – the happy ending beginning to our new adventure.

P.S. We really did pack everything we needed.