My Favorite Things, Volume VI

How would it be possible to take advantage of all the tools and gadgets so necessary to a successful mobile life without tried-and-true luggage to schlep it all around?  For a "road warrior", nothing is as discomfiting as an enroute luggage malfunction:  wobbly wheels, broken handles and stuck zippers are unwelcome examples.

Several national, retail brands claim rugged construction and guaranteed durability.  Their names are as recognizable as "Kleenex" is to facial tissue:  Samsonite, TravelPro, etc.  But all luggage is NOT created (or supported) equally and some of those brands that claim durability and anxiety-soothing product warranties don't deliver in the end.  In my own experience, the two most reliable mainstream retail brands, both in terms of wear and warranty, are TUMI and Briggs & Riley.  Both brands are at the higher end in terms of acquisition cost, with good reason.  Their dependable functionality and rugged construction deliver much better than average wear.  When something does go wrong, both brands stand behind their products with some of the best after-the-sale customer service available for any product, not just luggage.  

If you want the best-of-the-best without the premium price tag, search for these brands online at ebay.com or other auction sites.  Both retailers also offer seasonal discounts (usually no more than 20%) which might help ease you into what can be a major purchase.  (TUMI is currently [6/1/2013] having an end-of-season promotion:)

http://www.tumi.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=4238826&size=1000&source=TUMI_SaleNonOpen_06012013&camp=TUMI_SaleNonOpen_06012013&csm=437106521&csc=136671&csa=437149681&csu=136682

When traveling for leisure, I tend to favor TUMI products.  While on duty, working for my airline employer, I go a more practical route with hyper-ruggedized, crew-optimized luggage by LuggageWorks.  You may have seen crews pulling their famous "Stealth" rollaboard:  it looks like a black metal rectangle covered with fabric.  And that's essentially what it is!  The metal frame and box help to support the tremendous weight of the pilots' manual and chart bag without being crushed by it.     (They have recently introduced the same bag with an ABS plastic "box" which is almost as ruged but lighter in weight and lower in cost.)   The "Stealth" comes in various sizes but the most popular is the 22" standard allowed in the cabin of most commercial aircraft.  Again, these bags aren't cheap but have built-in dependability and construction methods that allow simple user "change out" of defective or malfunctioning parts.  You can find LuggageWorks bags online at luggageworks.com or at crew-oriented retailers like stopoverstore.com.

I don't want to leave you without a "healthy habit of the week", so let's look at something for the mind this time.  Admittedly, I have a bit of an obssessive-compulsive personality.  Like all traits, OCD has its benefits and its detriments.  The detriment is that most waking hours are spent feeling the need to do something.  The benefit is one tends to be rather productive.

Whether or not you have OCD, one great use for your extra time and energy while traveling is to maintain a blog or journal.  Though I've made several furtive attempts at journaling in the past, I always found some practical impediment to maintaining the habit.  With the advent of some of the technical tools I've discussed here, blogging has become almost second nature.  It's a great way to vent, to express yourself, to virtually take others along for the ride and to leave a trail behind you to be retraced, often with fascination, at a later time.  

Our lives are like meandering paths.  It's always fun to revisit the interesting sights you encountered along the way and, for a moment, remember what was...

MEMORIAL DAY

Show honor today for all who have served, reverent remembrance for those who died serving.

It seems to me that the further we drift from the concept of "shame" in our society, the less we understand the meaning of "HONOR".

Shame and honor are two of life's boundaries.  When we blur them, we will surely lose our way!

My Favorite Things, Volume V

Anything Apple!  Need I say more?

There's a certain elegance to the way one interacts with Apple products which, in my opinion, sets them HIGH above the competition.  Their interfaces are intuitive, their operation smooth and virtually fault-free, they are more-or-less impervious to viruses and malware, and they perform many functions away from the prying eyes of the user (which unnerves many).  The Apple "cloud" is peerless when it comes to distributing data to all Apple products in the user's possession.  For example, I take a photo with my iPhone and it is almost instantly available on every connected Apple device I own.  Whenever I add, delete, or update a contact or calendar event, it is synchronized to all my Apple devices through the cloud (and to my PC at home via Google.)

The three tech devices that accompany me on every road trip are my iPhone, my iPad, and my Zagg bluetooth keyboard.  (I PREFER the Apple bluetooth keyboard but its size limits portability.  The Zagg keyboard is exactly the same size as the iPad, so it fits in the same case.  It's the ONLY non-Apple product that I would consider recommending for this purpose.  In fact, Zagg's customer service is on par with Apple's!)

Together with the virutal universality of high-speed internet worldwide, these lightweight, powerful devices provide all of the computing and communications power I need for the mobile life!

After all of my blogging, posting, emailing and Skyping, I'm usually pretty hungry (how's that for a segue?)!  When travelling, I like to sample whatever food is "local".  In the U.S., much of the food in restaurants comes off the back of a SYSCO* (read "Soylent", in my opinion) truck, so it's a genuine treat to consume freshly-prepared, locally-sourced foods in other countries.

This past week, I enjoyed an exquisite meal with friends at a very picturesque biergarten-style restaurant in Mainz, Germany called Goldstein's.  The quality of the preparation was top-notch, the freshness of the components was unquestionable, the presentation was beautiful and the TASTE.....WOW!  I started with a cream of asparagus soup which featured tender, flavorful pieces of locally grown white asparagus and a garnish of whipping cream.  Decadent!  The main was a "schnitzel" of chicken breast, served with boiled potatoes, more fresh white asparagus and hollandaise sauce (the dish was momentarily placed under a broiler to "finish".)  Let your eyes be the judge...

(obviously, the photo was an after-thought!)

I try to enjoy my "international meals" with a sparkling water.  Alcohol causes WAY too many complications (although I've been known to enjoy a glass of red wine, on occasion) and the bubbles help prepare the palate for the next onslaught of flavor.

Food adventure is at least HALF the fun of travel!

(*NOTE:  I don't think my friends at Corkscrew BBQ even know what a SYSCO truck looks like!  BRAVO for them!)

An Apology and a Remembrance

I wish to apologize for my "Reality TV..." posting from yesterday.  I have removed it.

I DO NOT wish to contribute to the notion that the attitudes, personal appearance, or behaviors described in that post are acceptable.  I somehow overlooked the fact that, just by reporting an occurrence, one can give it credence or validity.  Even our mainstream media contribute to outrageousness on a daily basis.  But I will not.

New rule:  No posting on the day after coming in from back-to-back Frankfurt trips!

Let's put this blog back on track......

Remember why we celebrate Memorial Day!  In grateful remembrance of those who gave EVERYTHING so that we may live in freedom...

Little Milestones

Sometimes, when we make it our business to "fly under the radar", we wonder if anyone notices that we work hard to make a difference, do our best everyday whether anyone is watching or not.  This is especially true if, early on, we were on that "fast track" upward and made a conscious decision to jump off and breathe; to live our life instead of just doing what was expected.

Then, one morning, the phone rings:  "Hello.  I'm calling from inflight.  You have been selected to fly the inaugural Dreamliner service from Denver to Tokyo.  Would you be interested?"  

"Umm, sure.  I'd be honored."  Pleasantries are exchanged.  Click.  (Of course, after the click is when you think of all the questions you SHOULD have asked!)  Oh well.  The answers will come whether or not the questions are asked.

In the big scheme of things, it's just a little milestone.  But it's MY little milestone!

And the answer to the unasked questions is, "Yes.  It's noticed."

"Drive-by" blogging

Thought you might enjoy a snapshot of late spring in Mainz-on-Rhine...

Schillerplatz at rainy twilight (8pm). 

MAINE! (Excerpted from "My Friends with Wings")

I am a contributor to another blog geared to a juvenile audience.  More precisely, it's geared to an audience of gravely ill, hospitalized children who have little hope and practically no opportunity to venture outside their antiseptic world.  If you read the post entitled "Do you want to play with me?" from April, you already know their story in large part.  I thought of "translating" the following excerpt from that blog for an adult audience but upon re-reading, I don't think you'll mind if I leave it as-is!

I hope you enjoy reading about my favorite little corner of the world.....


"My mom and I are just returning from our annual trip to Maine to open the small house that our family owns there.  Maine is in the extreme northeast corner of the United States (upper right corner, if you look on a map).  Since it is so far to the north, the winter can be very cold with lots of snow and ice.  But the springs, summers, and falls are beautiful and much milder than in the southern part of the country. 

Our house is called "seasonal".  It was never meant to be lived in during the cold of winter and so, it has no insulation to help keep it warm when the weather is at its worst.  Every autumn, usually in October, we close the house for the year and our plumber drains and prepares our water lines for the cold.  Every spring, he reconnects our water service and we arrive to clean up any winter mess.

We call our small house MooseWalk Cottage because every spring, one or more of the local moose like to hang out in our yard.  Normally, moose are very shy and only rarely come so close to where humans live.  I guess they get "spring fever" like humans do and do things that aren't normal for them. Moose are very large and have huge, funny-shaped antlers.  Actually, they can be much larger than a normal car!  Since our house is in the country, we see a lot of different wildlife in addition to moose.  Turkeys, deer, skunks, guinea fowl, chipmunks, field mice, bats and other animals all share our spot near the woods.  They can be entertaining to watch but you don't want them to come inside!  We once chased a bat out of the house with a broom and a bed sheet.

My mom and I felt a little lonely this week.  One of our neighbors, Ruth Winter, is not here this year.  She died just last November at the age of 99.  Part of our trip each year is to celebrate Ruth's birthday on May 10th.  And even though Ruth wasn't with us, we celebrated her 100th birthday with her family and other friends last Friday.  It was a beautiful warm, sunny day; the kind of day that Ruth would have loved!  It was a sad reason to gather but we all agreed that having had a wonderful friend like Ruth Winter helped with the sadness of losing her.  We had dinner with Ruth's daughter and son-in-law and met several new friends that we didn't know before.

While in Maine, we mowed our lawn, put down mulch in our flower beds, cleaned the inside of the cottage and got the house ready for summer.  In addition to our visits, we sometimes have friends stay at the cottage when we are away.

Maine is famous for seafood.  So we ate fish, oysters, crab and clams while there.  Mom usually likes to have a lobster when she visits but I guess that will wait for her next trip up.  

There's plenty more to tell about visiting MooseWalk Cottage but I want to save some for later.  Right now, I'm looking out the window of our flight back to Atlanta and I see that we are passing over New York City.  It's a beautiful late-spring day and the skies are clear.  Everything looks so small from here.  It's hard to believe that New York is the largest city on Earth!

There's a great big world out there.  And its just waiting for you..."