Ruth's what-to-wear chart

Ruth's what-to-wear chart
Originally uploaded by daveterry

In preparation for our two month trip to China, Ruth made her what-to-wear chart. She lists all the clothes she wants to bring and draws lines between what goes with what. Anything with only a couple of lines gets axed!

(She doesn't have a shoe chart as she will only bring two pair. The ones she wears on the plane and the sandals in the carry on bag.)

We're big on www.onebag.com. We've been traveling now this way and we'll never go back to check-on bags. On our last two month-long trips to China we only brought a carry-on bag. Once we tried this, we never went back to checking bags. No lost luggage, no wait on arrival, no back pain, just to name a few benefits. If you are interested in lightening your load, check out the Go-Light-Guru at www.onebag.com. Great advice.

So we are locked and loaded. We leave for our two month adventure in China on Monday.

Plans are:
1) Photograph: You'll be able to follow our adventure vicariously at: travel.daveterry.net. (Or just click on the Travels tab above.)

2) Sketch: I'm looking forward to more sketch time.

3) Stories: We'll keep you posted on what's happening. (Sorta like last time's China 2008 trip. (Reading this blog is a great insomnia cure!)

...dave
A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking. ~Earl Wilson

delayed

delayed
Originally uploaded by daveterry.

I love taking vacations but I hate getting there, especially when it means taking an airplane. They are so unreliable these days.

Today's experience illustrates the point.

We left for a trip to Hawaii today but have yet to arrive at our destination. Due to a "computer glitch" the east coast planes were backed up for hours. There were 150 planes on the tarmac in Atlanta trying to get off the ground.

Our trip includes two legs, one from Atlanta to Houston, the other from Houston to Hawaii. After we boarded a small plane of 60 passengers and the door closed, the pilot said:

"As you may have heard all flights on the east coast are filing their flight plans manually. We have no idea how long this will take. We are on the list but the list includes 149 other planes."

As the time ticked by it was apparent that we'd miss the connecting flight in Houston. Eventually we got off the ground an hour and 45 minutes late.

We missed our connecting flight.

Once off the plane, I waited in line, walked up to the counter, explained my dilemma and the guy said:

"I can get you to LA but no guarantee you'll get a flight out from there. I can get you back to Atlanta but no flights tonight there either. Here's a discount coupon for a hotel, come back tomorrow."

But, but, what about companion airlines? I see lots of other things with wings on them out by the gates. Can I fly on one of those?

Nope.

Can you upgrade me?

Nope. This is an FAA issue and not caused by Continental Airlines.

How about getting me on standby somewhere?

Nope. No other flights to Hawaii today.

So courtesy of the FAA, but not paid by the FAA, we are spending a night in a lovely Houston motel by the freeway. In retrospect I guess we could have flown back to Atlanta but that's an awful short vacation.

Okay, let's make the best of it then.

The motel picked us up from the airport. We checked in and then we walked to the nearest McDs for their new mushroom/swiss 1/3 pounder (dude, that's a lot of meat), fries, and coffee. I also, picked up three cookies for dessert. I've got to be honest on this one, we sort of splurged. We went way beyond our budget. But this was comfort food.

With my comfort food in hand, I negotiated the narrow rows between the tables. A guy of about 300 lbs wearing a sock cap and baggy pants approached. He had a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He looked down at me and said:

"Get out of my !@#$ way."

Sure thing. Not a problem. Right away sir.

Hey, I didn't want to cause a scene in this foreign town. I didn't know what he was packin' in that duffel bag. I ain't going to argue with him. Besides, maybe he had a bad flight too?

I took my little sandwich and chocolate chip cookies to the corner and chewed quietly.

...dave
The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage. - Mark Russell