The trip was something far outside my regular day to day life here in suburbia. The one knife I was carrying had to do a much wider role of things, and deal with food processing as well. My small two blade jacks fell short on the food processing. A two blade of a size large enough to do, would have been too heavy. I hate heavy knives in my pocket. The sodbuster is light for it's size, because of the shadow pattern style. The truth is, if I too the food preparation out of the equation, I probably could have got by with just a peanut or other small jack. Traveling with a nice little nylon tent and take flat take down stern stove, I didn't have to worry about making shelter or firewood in a pinch. The stove that knocked down flat for packing away in a saddle bag, could bring a can of chili or Campbell soup to steaming hot in a few minutes.
Like most backpackers, I could have gotten away with just a small SAK or other similar size pocket knife. Certainly a heck of a lot of cowboys had got away using a barlow knife or cattle knife when out on the range. The problem with being a knife nut is, we tend to try to justify our knife pick of the month, when in reality, any sharp knife will do. And we generally don't need as much knife as we think we do. A peanut in my pocket and a paring knife in the saddle bag with the stove would have done just as well. Or a Victorinox alox soldier would have been great. Or a barlow with the P-38 on the keyring. But I'm a knife nut, so cold logic does not come into things. This was a trip across America in 2000AD. Not the American west in the 1870's. As it was, I had minor hassles in Rawlings Wyoming and Spanish Forks Utah by over zealous sheriffs deputies that had watched too many movies. What I had on me looked very innocent spread out on the hood of a Ford Crown Vic.
I'm actually thinking of doing it again with a Vespa. Shipping the scoot out to a California dealer and riding it back. I'd like one last adventure before settling down in my white dwarf stage. Who knows, maybe this time I will just take my peanut, with a Victorinox paring knife for kitchen duty in the camp pack.
Carl.