What do you do when your trip is just a few days away? Are you organized and ready to go? Do you pull out everything and repack something completely different? Do you wait until the night before? Honestly, I do a little of each of these strategies. For this trip, I’m thinking categories to help focus on my packing. These are the categories I’m focused on this week.
Airplane essentials..
One challenge for a long trip is keeping things you may need during the airline trip close at hand. This eliminates the need to go into the overhead bin. Have a small pouch to keep your things together and put it in the seat pocket in front of you. Better yet, now that we are all concerned with germs, keep it in a bag at your feet that you can reach easily.
First thing to do when you sit down is pull out your anti-bacterial wipes! Wipe down all surfaces including the seat belt buckle and the arm rests! Then make sure you can reach all you need.
Things you might need include:
- Wallet and ID – keep this on your person at all times. This is the most important item you will travel with and the hardest to replace. Friends have had their wallet stolen on a flight! Another lost her passport on a flight. Keep these safely tucked away in a secure travel wallet that you can wear under your clothes.
- Medicine pouch
- Hygiene pouch
- Headphones to view airline movies
- A good book
- Tablet and/or phone
- A fully loaded charger for the tablet or phone for long flights
- On the plane but maybe not at your feet a small change of clothes for emergencies.
Hygiene Pouch
Your hygiene pouch is to help keep all those germs away and keep you comfy.
- First put in your anti-bacterial wipes. You will need a lot for the trip so get a large package and split them up into re-sealable bags. Tuck some in your hygiene pouch and some in your checked bags.
- Hand sanitizer! This is another item that you may want one in your hygiene pouch and one in your checked bag with your toiletries.
- Tissues. Like the wipes, put some in a re-sealable bag in our hygiene pouch and pack some in your checked bags.
- Lip balm (aka lippy) is an essential! Airplanes are dry! Israel can be dry. You never know what you may find at the hotel, dry also.
- Small hand lotion, same situation as lippy above – everything could be dry.
- Face wash/wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush for long flights
I’m sure there are other items that you may want to add to keep you comfortable and clean during the trip both on the airplane and on the bus.
Medicine Pouch
Your medicine pouch may make the trip the most comfortable for you. Keep on hand some of the following:
- Allergy meds – a change in climate, foliage, and pollen may give you unexpected trouble. It might be allergies and not COVID that cause you to not smell the lovely cedars!
- Prescription meds – keep these with you on the airplane.
- Imodium (brand of your choice) – if you are a foodie you won’t want to miss out!
- Pepto (or brand of your choice) – the food is amazing, you may need to recover quickly.
- Pain killers – we will have a lot of walking, recover quickly!
- Vitamins – be ready for active days and boost your immune system to fight off and COVID we may encounter!
- A general first aid kit- just in case!
One other item I like to carry is something like Emergen-C or AirBorne that can be added to water. It helps the water taste better and helps with vitamins and immune support.
We are ready to go!
Bus Bag
Once we have begun our pilgrimage, we will be on the move! Your bus bag should have:
- Essentials from the airplane
- Medicine pouch
- Hygiene pouch
- Small tote bag for a shopping bag (this could be your bus bag or another bag)
- Camera with back up power supply/batteries and extra film/data disc.
- Journal – after each stop, write down what you have seen and what you think about it. When you get home everyone will want to know, this is a good way to remember and share. So much of what you see on a pilgrimage can be used in a Bible Study. Write down everything and use it for future studies! Also take note what you wear each day to help identify dates and locations in pictures.
Most important items to put in you Bus Bag every day! A big smile with a pilgrim heart. Take in everything, this is a gift God has given us. Remember, God doesn’t give you gifts to keep for yourself. Be ready to receive cheerfully and share abundantly!
