Travel Blog

Drove back down to Jet's Florida Outdoors on Friday because they'd called to tell me my knapsack had come in. My first knapsack. I was never a Boy Scout, and when I started traveling - in the age of backpacks - I didn't roam but settled down in places. With a suitcase.

The woman behind the register went and got the sack, which looked exactly as I'd hoped it would, which is to say, smaller than a backpack. (The very name would weigh me down.) In fact, I may actually start calling it a rucksack. The staff seemed happy at the sight of my happiness, and I don't remember if I told them what a momentous day this was for me. I know I didn't mention that I felt like a young Patrick Leigh Fermor, ready to walk from Holland to Istanbul.