Rough travel
I am a backpacker, mountain biker, and long distance bicycle tourist. That means that I also drive long distances (coast to coast) staying in the car and leaving the car for weeks at a time to head off into the woods.
That raises a couple questions.
- How do you protect a stick dulcimer out on the trail or on a bike?
- How do you protect a regular dulcimer in a car sometimes left for long periods (weeks)?
In the first case I went to a lot of trouble to build very light backpacking stick dulcimers so I want to pack super light. I will probably just assume it will get beat up and not protect it much beyond trying to keep it dry and not completely crush it. So protection is likely to be no more than a very light plastic bag when it rains. The bag could possibly be bubble wrap to offer a bit more protection. I have sometimes built covers for other thing out of the Mylar/foam sandwiches that are used in windshield sunscreens. I could consider one of those. It would probably weigh about the same as bubble wrap.
In the second case I wonder how bad it will be to have it in a hot/cold car in damp/dry weather and how best to protect it from those conditions. I would used one of those reflector sunscreens to moderate the heat in the car a bit. I guess one solution is to just accept that it will be abused and consider that a cost of having it along on long trips. I am willing to do that if necessary.
I'd be interested in folks experience with this and any suggestions of how to best cope.