Pack light. Then pack lighter. On this trip, I took two sets of clothes. The clothes that I normally wear, and the clothes that I wear when I'm washing them. You might notice that I'm always wearing the same clothes in my pics. Nothing cotton. It's all wicking, quick drying, and light weight. I can wash my clothes in a sink, or in a pot. They dry overnight in a hotel room, or in the car. I use Dr. Bronners soap to wash my clothes, myself, my hair, and my dishes. Convenient. I also took a light pullover, a wind breaker, and silk long underwear. That's it for clothes. I may look the same all the time, but I don't have a suitcase of clothes for a three week trip, and I'm good for all weather conditions. Clothes/toiletries/computer stuff all fit into a small gym bag. All my backpacking stuff fits into my backpack. Aside from food, that's really all I have with me. The less stuff you have, the less worry/hassle it is to pack/unpack it, move it, and carry it with you.
In the same vein as packing light, don't take books with you. When I was preping my pack for my trip, and weighing things, I found the four or five small books that I wanted to take with me to be one of the heaviest things I had. I took them anyway. I didn't read any of them. During the day, I'm driving or hiking. At night I'm sleeping. If I did want to read before going to sleep, reading takes light. Light sources are heavy and bulky to pack. I've got a great headlamp, super small, super light, but I'm not going to waste its battery on reading. I've found audiobooks on my iPod superior in every practical way for fun reading. I can "read" while driving, I can "read" in the dark, I carry hours and hours of books with no weight, my iPod's battery is non-essential... if it goes dead, I don't care. I have a tendency to carry reference books as fun reading, though. It's lacking there.
State parks are actually cheap motels. Not having "camped" at many park campgrounds, I hadn't really realized this before now. But from anywhere from $8 to $18 dollars a night, you can sleep at the park. Many have running water, electrical outlets, bathrooms, and showers. It's hard to find decent motels for less than $80 a night. Decent meaning you won't feel worse in the morning for having stayed there overnight. If the weather's right, sleeping outdoors with fresh air and quiet can be far more restful than sleeping on a bad bed, or having noisy neighbors, or staying someplace that reeks or smoke/cleaning chemicals. One of our "camp" spots even had wifi, can’t ask for more than that.
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