Do you ever ship belongings to destination or back home?

Not odd at all. The closest we've come to that is to ship souvenirs back home on a long trip out west when we had 3 adults in a small trailer.

I have friends who flew west, bought a tent, sleeping bags, etc. then sold them before they came home. Not sure how they arranged a sale but it worked for them.

Shipping isn't cheap. So you'd have to figure how much to ship your stuff back and forth vs. how much it will cost to buy it there and ship it all back.