I was thinking yesterday about how much I’m going to miss my bathrobe. I really like wearing bathrobes. Perhaps more than a person ought to. But there will be no bathrobes on the road. I’ve laid out the clothes I intend to take, and while they are all comfortable to a degree, none can quiet match hanging out in yard after yard of cotton terry weave.

Longing for the bathrobe I hadn’t yet given up got me thinking: What makes me so sure I’ll miss it? I once thought I couldn’t live without a microwave, but I did it for two years and on the whole considered it an improvement on my eating. So what else do I think I’ll miss that I might not care about at all?

1. Bathrobes
2. Watching movies
3. Having a second monitor for my computer
4. Refrigerators
5. A great range of clothing choices
6. Always being able to immediately wash sticky things off my hands
7. Comfortable temperatures
8. Days that don’t require planning
9. Seattle rain
10. Familiarity

*I have purposely excluded people, because in my experience the people you miss most when traveling aren’t always the ones you most want to be around, but the ones that would enjoy being where you are, doing what you’re doing. You miss them because you can’t help but think about how much they’d love to be on the trip you’ve taken.

This post is labeled Part One because when I return, I will use this list as a marker of some of the (possible) misconceptions I had about the trip. Now that I’ve made my list, I’m starting to think that the biggest differences will be the stuff I missed during the trip that I didn’t think to put on the list. But I suppose that’s always the benefit of letting go of the things you’re used to having. You find out what you don’t need, and what you can’t live without. I’m just hoping the things I can’t live without will all fit in my car.