smokin

A funny thing happened to me last trip...

I purchased a new rollerbag 3 weeks ago because the first one I had wasn't living up to what I had hoped. This new suitcase I purchased was even 60% off. The brand was a travelpro (read the ad above)...made to take a beating from frequent travelers such as myself. It was not cheap, even with the 60% off, but I felt it would be a good investment since I have to lug the thing around everyday. This bag was nice because I hardly had to pull on it to get it to follow me.

The first 2 weeks with the bag were great. It fully lived up to my expecatations. However, last trip was a different story.

I had a 4 day trip going to various places such as Providence, Albany, and San Diego. Since we were staying 2 of our nights in a Holiday Inn, I decided to bring my laptop since there is free wireless access in the rooms. (Otherwise, it's regularly $10 for a 24 hour window!). Although it is only 3 years old, my laptop is so heavy, I could probably do a full body workout with this thing. I didn't put the laptop in the rollerbag, for that would make it heavy when trying to place it in the overhead bins...and I don't want to look like I can't do my job and lift my own bag! So, I have a cloth briefcase like one you'd use for school. I placed it in there and hung it on a strap on the rollerbag.





The first day of the trip "rolled" smoothly. The second day, not so much. Gradually, my bags were getting harder and harder to pull. At first, I didn't realize it and thought I was just tired. But on the last day when I met up with my friend Kristy in Baltimore, I realized something was wrong. After a long day of flying, we met up at the airport and decided to take the lightrail to our crashpad. To get to the lightrail is a good (or bad in this case) 10 minute brisk walk through the airport. From the lightrail to our crashpad, another 10-12 minutes of fast walking on sidewalks. As we were walking through the airport, I was trying to tell her stories of my traveling adventures of the last few days. She looks at me and says, "are we going to fast? Your out of breath. I thought you were the runner!". She was right, I was huffing and puffing trying to get this story out. I said, "I'm ok, it's just hard for me to talk fast and walk fast at the same time". After we are dropped off by the lightrail, we start walking through the neighborhood with our bags behind us. She said, "Katie, you look like you are tugging on that bag. Here, switch me and pull mine". So we switched bags and she said it was the hardest bag she's ever pulled.

The next morning, I woke up later than I wanted to catch my flight back home. In order to catch the flight, I needed to be dressed and out of the house in 10 minutes....and I did it! In all the chaos getting ready, there was no time to examine my bag. Ok, picture this...I am literally PULLING the bag DOWN HILL!!! I have my uniform on which consists of a sweater vest and pants...not condusive to keeping one cool! It takes me 15 minutes to get to the lightrail and I really thought my arms were going to fall off. After I get to the airport, I'm walking along, lugging this thing behind me. My hamstrings are BURNING and sweat is starting to run down my face!!! I make it to my gate in time and decided to check out the problem. I turned over the bag and noticed that both wheels were pointed in. One wheel was in so much that it wouldn't even turn...and not only that, part of it was missing because it was rubbed off from the friction! I am really suprised I didn't start a fire while pulling my bags. I can see it now, Katie smokin through the airport!! Happy I was that I didn't have to work that day because I was so sweaty from getting my workout in on the way to the airport. No wonder people were looking at me funny!

Since then I've taken the beat-up bag back and upgraded to the best one. That was hard to do because I'm frugal, but I figured it would be better in the long "haul". To my suprise, the new bag rung up on sale, giving me a credit of almost $80. The "better" bag ended up costing half as much as the beat-up bag! YES!!!

You get what you pay for...and hopefully I've paid for easy rollin and not hard smokin!