Packing my 'chute

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

I can't totally agree with ol' Bob there -- the idea of traveling to Afghanistan, Pakistan or any of the 'stans, for that matter, holds no appeal at all, I'm afraid. But I get the gist of what he's driving at: The going is important. Yep, I do get that.

My exchangers from France arrive a month from today. For all intents and purposes my own trip begins then. You can't see it, but I'm doing a Happy Dance.

As most of you know, I've arranged back-to-back house swaps in France and England this fall. Already I'm getting those little butterflies in the bottom of my stomach when I've got a trip coming up. It's a familiar, pleasant, slightly unsettling feeling. Will I remember to pack my underpants?

Having inherited the McCarn anal streak, I make To Do lists. These To Do lists have spawned more To Do lists. We're now at To Do 6.0.

And then there's the house: It has lists of its own. When you swap your house with someone else, of course you want to leave it in spruce condition. But in the months leading up to the exchange, at least at my address, water marks myteriously appear in the ceiling, my mattress starts sagging, and all the rugs and curtains, like lepers, start screaming "Unclean! Unclean!" My fellow exchangers usually report this same phenomenon.

I'm ticking off tasks daily, but with only a month to go, I'm not sure I'll be fully ready to leave by November. Of 2012.

Having said all that, as usual I'm actually savoring the preparations, the research, the anticipation. I call it packing my 'chute. It's the earliest part of the travel package, and it always pumps me up for the adventure ahead.

Of course, not every trip involves new custom-made draperies in the living room, thank goodness. But I looked at the pending arrival of my visitors as a handy excuse to take on that long-overdue home decor project. They're already up and look exceptionally cool. (See for yourself above.)

The first couple with whom I'm exchanging, Yves and Chantal Benoistel, live right outside Paris. After they arrive in Charlotte we'll have 24 hours together before I leave Sept. 10. It'll be wonderful to meet them, get them oriented to my newly-spiffed-up house and show them a bit how the streets work around town (i.e., Queens, Queens, Queens and Queens Roads).

I just hope they like big, bold, burgundy-colored tulips.