Getting Ready to Leave 2 (Challenges)--Driving Away From the Storm

Leslie and I left for Anchorage at 5 this morning. We got her to Anchorage in good time for her flight, despite driving slowly in the blizzard conditions. Actually, we drove right out of the blizzard: we emerged from the snow right around when it started to get light. Things got easier. But I called Phil back at home, and he said there were 70mph winds there and more trees down, including the tree with the eagle nest in it downtown.

For the past two years, eagles have nested in a spruce snag just 100 yards off of the main highway, right by the only traffic light in town, attracting all kinds of fancy camera equipment and gawkers. This year, they raised two young ones. I've always had mixed feelings about the scenario: on the one hand, it's awesome to get to see so much of their private life. On the other hand, it always felt intrusive to me, just a little too close. The avid photographers were a traffic hazard also. I confess I might be just a tiny bit glad that tree blew down.

Metaphorically, I feel I drove away from a storm of a different kind, too. I-in-my-home-environment have been so 'stormy' lately. This couple days of limbo in Anchorage will be an opportunity for quiet and reflection, I hope.

Getting myself packed entailed some extra challenges. Since we're house-sitting for our neighbors (their house is just beyond the trees out of sight in the photo below), my stuff was scattered between two homes. Additionally, Phil put up a rather experimental fence made from discarded seine net, to keep the snowshoe hares out of our raspberry canes. Getting my wheeled carry-on over that was fun.

Oh yes, and the snow also...

I had a challenging moment getting all my pills together. This isn't even all of them.

And by the time I get home, these will be all gone! It's kind of shocking to see such a stack, especially given that I make efforts to avoid 'artificial' things and 'drugs.' And yes, part of the reason why the quantity is so vast is because I don't take pharmaceutical drugs, but it's still a heck of a lot of pills. Some of these are nutritional supplements--enzymes and probiotics, minerals (magnesium) and vitamins (D, B12) that I don't absorb well. Many of them are hormonal replacements and supplements. Many of them are aimed at keeping my self equilibrated, away from one pole or the other.

It's easy to recoil in horror, especially remembering the years that I refused to take any kind of pill, reflecting that in my typical 'one extreme to the other' style, I brought this on myself. But rather than beat up on myself or feel despondent about the pile of pills, I choose to acknowledge that I'm taking them because I am working toward being my best, even when I can't tell that's what I'm doing.

My bag is full of goodies, including three writer magazines (some serious catching up for the plane ride), Vega protein powder packs, various home-made energy bars and kale chips, dried fruit.

I choose to allow this paraphernalia to remind me that I am doing my best.
How do you do your best when traveling? What are your essential travel take-alongs?