TravelAwaits
There’s a wonderful passage in Ann Jones’ marvelous travel memoir,
Looking For Lovedu, where she recounts the clean-out day she needed after crossing the Sahara in a jeep. While I can’t identify with Jones’ endless appetite for adventure, her scrubbing day speaks to me. In fact, just like Jones, I’ve built many a cozy memory around the prosaic work of doing travel laundry.
While I can’t exactly claim to love doing laundry when I’m at home, it’s a different story altogether when I’m traveling. Laundry has become my mid-trip rite of passage. It’s a meditative moment that allows me to take a breath, grounding myself in the mundanity of the chore. I’ve listened in on some mighty interesting conversations at laundromats around the world and I’ve had some highly satisfying bouts of hotel room scrubbing. Laundry time is when my bag gets reorganized, my postcards are finally written, and my travel budget is updated.