Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip '013 Eve

Tomorrow morning, bright and early (well, early anyway) I take off for Seattle, Washington to start my vacation. I'm roadtripping it from Seattle to San Diego and following the scenic Pacific Coast Highway. Or in true Colbert fashion it's my Pacific Coast Highway Cruntastic Road Trip '013 Sponsored by Cool Ranch Doritos (hereafter shortened to PCHRT'013). I have been asked WHY I am flying somewhere just to drive somewhere else and then fly home. There are a couple reasons. 

First, the trip from Seattle to San Diego is roughly 1750 miles. Nine days of driving, that's a couple hundred miles a day, a nice leisurely (or vacationly if you prefer made up words) pace. Driving from Des Moines to Seattle would add  another 1750 miles to that, then San Diego back to Des Moines adds almost another 1750 (which I'm now realizing would roughly form a giant equilateral triangle which would be kind of cool...). That would require 500-600 miles a day, a very un-vacationly pace.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, is the fact I don't own a convertible. What is the point in driving a regular car with a roof on it, especially once you get to southern California, down the PCH? 

THE LUGGAGE CONUNDRUM

Facing the packing problem everyone faces taking long trips. There's the regular "How many T-Shirts will I need?" "Should I take extra shoes?" "Will I really need to change my underwear EVERY day?" kind of questions that go with every trip. But with this trip I also need to take along my DSLR camera (I plan on taking a LOT of pictures along the way) and all its assorted cords, chargers, lenses, memory cards and filters. Plus the tripod if I actually want to be in any of these pictures myself. Then there's the laptop and its cords. Not to mention the GPS and cell phone plus their assorted cords and chargers. Modern travel is really a lot about cords and chargers for all the devices you take along. Almost none of which can be used on anything other than the one device it's designed for. I thought I had solved that issue with this Case Logic backpack, specifically designed to carry a DSLR camera, a laptop and with compartments for all the stuff that go with them. Only problem is the thing literally weighs a ton* once everything is in there and there is no way in hell I'm carrying that on the plane, much less lugging it down 1750 miles of scenic coastline. So instead I'm forced to take several sub-bags - camera bag, tripod bag and laptop bag - and pack some of them inside the suitcase for the flight. Bags inside of bags...

* For all you grammar police types like me that were thinking "Literally? LITERALLY weighs a ton?!?!", take a deep breath and chill out. If I've told you once I've told you a million times not to get worked up over the hyperbolic use of the word "literally."

TRAVEL SIZES!

As is usual the night before a trip it's off to Target for all the things you somehow have managed to live without all these years but all of a sudden need because you're about to go on vacation. One of the best thing about going a trip is getting travel sizes of things like toothpaste, saline solution or deodorant. Because it's always nice to pay 25x as much per ounce for something just so you can have a miniature version of it. Plus when you hold travel sized items it kind of makes you feel like a giant.