What to Pack for a Fall Trip

This month we have a just-for-fun road trip planned that will take us through Arkansas and Tennessee during a time of gorgeous weather and beautiful fall leaves, and I'm quite excited about it. As usual, though, the most important question in preparing for this 10-day trip is not "where will we stay?" or "what will we do?" but "what will I wear?"

The last time I documented a trip on this site, I confessed that the real struggle for me with packing is the disconnect between my romantic notions of what I ought to be wearing in any given location and the realities of travel. Here's what that struggle looked like for this trip:

Romantic Notions: Perfect, hip, Bohemian outfits; weather constantly in the 70s so I can get away with wearing skirts with no tights; all my shoes -- but especially my blue ones for Memphis; perfect photo ops at every kitschy roadside attraction that include me wearing vintage ensembles evocative of the 1950s and Route 66.

Reality: Practical, comfortable outfits; I have to pack outfits that work with or without tights, or with or without additional layers; no more than 3 pairs of comfortable shoes that I can walk in and wear with or without tights; yoga pants for those photo ops, because I'll be spending a lot of time in the car

Also, Desmond wanted me to pack him in the bag.

Here's what I finally ended up packing:

Pants: 4 pairs -- 2 of jeans, 1 of lightweight plum corduroy, 1 pair yoga pants

Shirts: 7 -- Grey tee, Eric Clapton tee, Black and white striped tee, plum striped tee, thin grey sweatshirt, chambray button-up, plaid flannel

Skirt: 1 -- faux-leather fun skirt (because if I made it work in February's remix, I can make it work now)

Dress: 1 -- navy floral shirt dress

Toppers: 4 -- teal cardigan, grey cardigan, jean jacket, black blazer

That's 17 pieces -- probably too many for only a 10 day trip, but I just couldn't make up my mind. And that number doesn't include accessories:

Shoes: 3 -- teal flats (suede-ish -- close enough for that "blue suede" feel), brown ankle boots, black sneakers

scarves: 3 -- muted lavender, black & white plaid, and olive green

hat: 1 -- the brown floppy hat

And all of it's going into that cute cat-print bag, which I'll be telling you more about later this week.

Now I'm ready to hit the road and find fall!