In The Market For A New Backpack

I bought this Swiss Gear back pack in 2006. This bag has been to Kenya, Seattle, San Diego, Connecticut, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Georgia, Germany, Japan, Ecuador, Michigan, Montana, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Poland, Texas, Tasmania, New Mexico, North Dakota, Finland, Florida, Alabama, Amsterdam, Australia and Alaska. I didn't take it to Isle Royale. I bought a special backpack for Isle Royale and a strap on that new backpack broke on the second day of the trip.

But my back pack is wearing out.  You can see the fabric is starting to tear. That round hole at the top was the new thing in 2006 because you could thread your ear buds and listen to music playing inside your bag. I never did thread my ear buds through there but I could have.

I kept my cell phone in that tiny pocket on the strap! That was a cellphone where you had to press the 7 key four times to get the letter s.

The strap on the left partially melted when I rode my motorcycle to work. I must have hit the muffler with it before I got saddle bags. Sometimes that strap would whip my thighs in the wind and boy, howdy, that hurt. I am in the market for a  new backpack now. I hope the new one lasts 15 years like this one did. So long Swiss Gear back pack. Thanks for carrying all my stuff. You were real comfy.

 

Laundry in Finland

I was favorably impressed with the laundry system at this apartment in Helsinki. This 5 story, three wing condos are right on the sea.  The laundry room has a sign up sheet. We signed up a couple times. The washing machine is industrial.  All the instructions are in the language of Finland so I had to guess.  There was no charge and the clothes came out clean so i guess we did just fine. Next to the laundry room is a drying room. This room had clotheslines for 10 loads of laundry and a drying rack with 4 shelves. We hung our laundry in the drying room and turned on the drying machine for 4 hours. We came back and our laundry was done. Cool beans. Cool Finnish beans.

A Cloudy Day in Helsinki

A Sunny Day In Helsinki