Have Bag, Will Travel*

(Source)

So today is a "get ready to travel" day. I'll be off to the local grocery emporium to buy the wee things one needs for travel, hoping to not make this mistake again, then I will pack my suitcase.

I kind of believe in traveling light, but let's just say I don't really practice that. I believe in having more than I will possibly need because, you know, just in case. I really try not to go overboard, though I often find myself wondering "What the Hell did I pack this for?"

Hats, gotta have a spare, usually two. Why? Well, if one gets too sweaty/dirty/smelly, then I can change hats. Do I? No, not really. Haven't had a hat get that bad in a very long time...

Underwear, enough to last the duration of the trip. Which, I'm here to tell you, was tough for the previous trip to Sandy Eggo. Now that trip was three weeks (19 days to be exact) in duration and, I'm here to tell you, I don't own that much underwear. So the need to do laundry at some point was understood and somewhat planned for.

Now I say "somewhat" because we (my counterpart and I) were told that there was a handy-dandy laundromat not far from our hotel. We were told this by a former Little Rhodian who had since moved to Sandy Eggo and had lived there for somewhat less than two years. How she had heard of that laundromat I don't know. But my counterpart, being a young and brilliant engineer, decided to check it out via the facility of the "online review," rather than take the word of a relative neophyte to the world of Sandy Eggo. (Said person also being kind of a well known "know it all," if'n you catch my drift.)

Turns out that the reviews were generally bad. Apparently if you want your clothing to smell like urine, well then, that was the place to go. Seems that the place isn't exactly well-staffed and the local homeless community will saunter in, strip down, and throw their clothes in whichever washers are running. At least that's the story we heard.

So we opted to let the hotel do our laundry. Here's my recommendation on that, if you have to pay for that service yourself, don't. Just bring clothes you don't care about and when they get dirty, throw them away and buy new ones. It's far cheaper than having a hotel in Southern California do it for you. Seriously.

Mind you, they did a fine job, but it cost my employer something like a sawbuck short of two C-notes. Seriously.

Outer clothing, probably five "outfits," hey, I'm the kind of guy who will wear the same jeans for an entire week, or longer if The Missus Herself doesn't check up on me. T-shirts, I can usually get a couple of days from those, except probably in Sandy Eggo in the summer. Been there, learned that. Oh, one of the "outfits" will be what I wear on the plane, out and back. Hey, I'm a pretty clean person, I don't sweat much and I usually smell pretty damned good. (Hey, I believe in showering once or twice a day, I hate feeling "icky.")

Shoes, three pair. One for the plane and for "off duty", two for work, which get rotated every other day. To keep the smell down, dontcha know.

Anyhoo, packing...

I bring a bag I have to check (it sucks that you have to pay for that, though on Southwest Airlines you don't, for business, the company pays, yay me), then I have a carry-on (think backpack) and sometimes a "personal item." For you ladies that's a purse, for me, that's my laptop bag. The backpack and the laptop can both fit under the seat in front of me, but not at the same time. So last time the backpack went into the overhead and the laptop case under the seat. (The laptop being a company asset I wanted it under my direct personal control at all times.)

After having given it a lot of thought, this time I shall forego the laptop bag. After all, my laptop will easily fit into my backpack and the backpack didn't have all that much stuff in it anyway, could have easily handled the laptop as well as the other stuff.

Why not both bags? Well, it's a pain in the posterior to carry two bags through the aeroporto. DAMHIK. Which brings me to another foible of mine. Flights out of T.F. Green (our local aeroporto) tend not to go direct to where I want to go, unless it's the DC area. So a flight out to Sandy Eggo will require at least one stop along the way. I don't really mind, I like to get out and stretch my legs rather than fly directly across the continent, also, I hate, repeat hate, driving to Boston to get that direct flight.

Driving to Boston is a pain in the ass, no two ways about it. Long term parking at Logan Aeroporto is also a pain in the ass. Returning from a long flight then having to drive from Boston to my domicile is also a pain in the ass, approaching a pain in the ass of Biblical proportions.

Also, to be perfectly frank, driving in Boston is a total pain in the ass. Been there, done that, effing hate it. Not to put too fine a point on it... I'll do it, but I would rather not.

Anyhoo, one carry on bag suits me just fine.

Which brings me to another pet peeve/foible/things-I-can't-stand kind of thing...

People with those little roll around suitcases (rather than have one big suitcase, the old OBS, which they have to check) that they pack all of their earthly belongings in and then take onboard the aircraft to stow in the overhead bins. Why? Well then, don't have to pay for those, do ya?

No, ya don't. However, a lot of people who have those are nearly completely incapable of actually lifting the gorram thing into the overhead bin in anything under five minutes. Which, when you're trying to board a hundred plus people on the aircraft, adds significantly to the amount of time it takes to board the damned thing.

Sometimes it's fun to watch someone who appears to be fairly well-off (gotta be, otherwise how can they afford to fly?) but apparently has no concept of spatial relationships trying to cram that damned roll around bag into the overhead bin. Or worse, someone who is physically incapable of lifting the gorram thing by themselves and who is waiting for someone to help them.

Now that latter bit I don't mind too much, hey, some folks can't lift heavy things. (So check the gorram bag next time, 'kay?) I get that, I have helped folks get the damned bag into the overhead, especially older folks and cute females (don't judge). But some people, argh! If you can't lift the bag it's because you've got too much shit in it, right? Practice at home, "Ooh, can't lift this, better unpack some stuff." But no, somehow they think that when they board the aircraft they can find some hidden reserve of strength to get it into the bin. Or struggle mightily until someone (usually a flight attendant) helps them.

Enough said about that.

So yeah, travel, it's only ten days this time so there probably won't be a need to do laundry while I'm out there. So packing should be a breeze.

No doubt, I'll forget something.

* With apologies to Paladin.