It's hard to believe I am going to be traveling to 4 foreign countries to which I have never been with a guitar (my trusty Gibson J-45 songstress) and a carry on, playing music to strangers from vastly different cultures than my native Midwestern America. Someone told me last week they would be terrified doing that. I don't know, I just find it liberating and exciting to see more than what I have grown used to. Another person I spoke with as I was saying, "It's going to be.. It will just be amazing, you know? It will be..." and they finished my sentiment by saying... "Freedom."
My nature lately has been what I would call pretty responsible. As a 31 year old man, it had taken me awhile given I lived at home until 25, then moved out with my girlfriend at the time, then my wife. I now am a single man, no kids, no wife, and I am on my own. I am going to be freewheelin'. It seems like all the relative moments in my life over the past two years had brought me here. I genuinely was in a bad place inside and out about 19 months ago. I was just walking through the dark forest, if you will. Since about November 12 last year, I had decided to start budgeting everything... My money..My food intake..My booze intake... I have generally overall become a much more responsible person. I feel better. I don't think feeling better shuts down your inner most idiosyncrasies, though. I still am a living human who deals with suffering, I just have become friends with it. It is not a bad thing, it simply is.
Nonetheless, upon my journey to find the perfect travel companions, my guitar case and my travel bag, I had reached out to friends and also done some research. The guitar will not be flying as a checked item, because if anything happens to my beautiful songstress I would be a grumpy grump, and also I needed a bag to travel with my trusty MacBook, as well as my clothing. Talking to a traveling buddy of mine, it became quite evident I needed some pointers. He talked with me about a number of things from laundry to what bag to buy to where to find housing.
The Guitar Case (Acoustic Guitar Case-GTSA-GTRDREAD)
So I began searching around for a good travel guitar case and I decided on a Gator TSA ATA Flight Case for my J-45. Great ratings on Amazon and also best bang for the buck. $119.
The Carry-On (eBags Professions Weekender)
Then I did a little research on what type of travel bag I should get. As I said above, my buddy, Kyle is his name, who is an avid traveler mentioned doing a carry on bag. He recommended the Motherlode Weekender by eBags. I wanted a more form fitting bag that was made for laptops, as I will be blogging. The Weekender Pro by eBags was the bag I decided on and it retails for $159:
Following that I had to learn about packing light and rolling my clothes, utilizing packing cubes, and being efficient. You know, fundamental human things that adults do.
All in all, think these two cases will work. We shall see.
I told them both to pose and look cute. Looks like it worked out. :)
Talk to you all soon!
- Gavin