Gnawing of Teeth and Cramming Bags

Why, oh why, does car camping take so much gear? There's the tent, the chairs, the sleeping bags, the (gasp) sleeping matts*... We're supposed to be getting "away" from it all. When did "away from it all" come with so much friggin'stuff?

George (Dad) and I spent the day  going from the bank to get some American cashola, to the electronics store for that transmitting doo-dad that hooks up the MP3 player to the radio.

At the CAA offices, as we walked a young woman through our desired route on the computer, she confessed to wishing she was back in Australia. She met a boy there, who is now here in Canada with her. But she's working on immigrating to Australia permanently and taking a degree in Marine Biology. The paperwork getting there, however, is crazy. After printing our TripTik she gave us so many free reference books and maps, we're going to need a book case in the back seat.

Over our "are we ready?" dinner, as we chomped on tortellini and eyed the mountain of stuff we had to fit in the car, the big question became: How the heck are we getting this stuff back?

How, indeed. 

Does anyone know of any other cheap, not necessarily fast route? Bus, perhaps?

We depart at noon. Onward ho!

* On "real" canoe trips I took as a teenager, those who needed sleeping matts were viewed as wimps. Well, I guess we are now wimps.