The “Mother” of all Road Trips

Summer is here – well, almost – and a favorite American tradition is the ROAD TRIP!  Whether you have great childhood memories of your summer road trips, or not so great memories, packing today’s version of the station wagon with the kids, snacks, and luggage and hitting the open road is something every family will do at some point.  So if you’re going to do it, why not go big!

                       

My oldest daughter is graduating from high school next year.  We’ve been talking and talking about what she’d like to do to celebrate her graduation – and while what she’d really like is a trip to Australia or the Galapagos Islands, the budget doesn’t allow for that right now.  So, instead, we’ve decided to do the mother of all road trips – on the Mother Road, Route 66, followed by a jaunt up the PCH, turning right, through Yosemite and Yellowstone, and back through the Black Hills.  We mapped it – it’s 4 straight days of driving if we never stop to pee, get gas, eat, or look at anything – totaling about 5100 miles round trip.  Ambitious?  Yes, but if we can save for it, budget it right, and pull it off, it will be the trip of a lifetime and something none of us will ever forget!  My hope is to budget a month “off work” (I can work from the road a bit) and just soak in that time with my girls.  An even bigger hope?  That their Dad will be able to fly out to California and make the leg back through Yosemite and Yellowstone with us, maybe flying back to Chicago from Montana.

How do we go about planning such an ambitious trip?  We’ve done countless trips and treks through the South and Southeast, and my kids and I all love those driving trips.  There is something soothing about the sound of the wheels on the road, when the I-Pod isn’t cranked up with all of us singing crazily at the top of our lungs.  Seeing the landscape changing as we move across country is kind of cool, too.  As are the unexpected finds – like the giant donut we found somewhere we’ve never found again – or that little country store with icy cold bottled pop in a cooler – a real bit old fashioned gas station cooler – with ice and water inside and pumps so old I had to get the kids out there to show them “how things used to be”.  And those stranger moments – like the time we were driving down an old back road and wanted to stop at a store, but the kids who were on the porch were “barking” at us, which freaked my youngest out, so we didn’t go in (instead, my oldest squatted “like a bear” beside the road to go to the bathroom and we waited 30 more miles for something to drink).  Knowing that we all can handle a road trip – because it’s important to know that first – we made some lists.  What things did we all want to see that we hadn’t seen yet?

Yellowstone was at the top of the list for one of the girls.  One just wanted to go – anywhere was fine.  One really wanted to go back to California.  Two haven’t seen the Grand Canyon yet.  We live in Chicago – Route 66 starts here and meets most of those requirements – traveling through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and ending up at the corner of 7^th and Broadway in Los Angeles, it travels through multiple different climates and geographical areas, allows for a few kitchy totally tourist stops and some more serious stops as well.  But it didn’t really give us much of California – or beach time – and not Yellowstone.  Plus, we didn’t want to come back the same way we drove out, so a loop seemed to make the most sense.  Since all of us wanted to go to Yellowstone, the decision was easy.  Here is what our eventual loop will look like:

(hand drawn approximation)

The basic idea is to follow Route 66 with a detour to Vegas, then the PCH to San Francisco, then head back east through Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Black Hills and the Badlands, make a stop at the Ingalls Homestead in South Dakota, head north to the source of the Mississippi River (north of Bemidji, MN) and then follow the Great River Road back to Galena, IL and then finally back home.  All in all, it’s about 5100 miles.

We plan to do a mix of camping, low budget roadside motels, a couple of more “luxurious” stops, and to let the road dictate our schedule.  There are a couple of things we’ll have to book in advance, but once we decide on our “go date”, it should be fairly easy to guesstimate when we’ll make it to those locations.  If we’re ahead of schedule, we’ll slow down – if we’re running behind, we’ll have to forego some of the two lane roads for interstate highway time – and chances are, we will run behind.  There are too many cool things to see and we’re really good at “wasting” a lot of time in places others don’t seem impressed by.  (like the time we spent 3 hours at a round tower in Ireland on a drive from Dublin to Killarney – we had no idea how long we’d been there until we got back in the car.  But the historian on site was so chatty and interesting – and my kids, who were 5 and 8 at the time, weren’t bored or asking “can we go yet” – so we didn’t)

Over the course of the next year, I’ll be posting about our planning process, and then we’ll blog it from the road as we travel.  In the meantime, we’re taking a series of shorter road trips, a couple of vacations, and you’ll get to share in those adventures.

I hope your “Bags R Packed”, because it’s going to be a phenomenal year!

Fees – I hate ’em!

Fees – the taste of that word in my mouth makes me want to spit.  I hate ‘em.  Doesn’t matter what kind of “fee” it is – just the word is abhorrent to me.  But, these days, if you’re going to travel, you’re going to pay a fee – at least one – usually more.

Airlines are especially good at charging fees.  Here are some things that used to be free that you now pay for:

• Checking your bag
• Checking in with an agent
• Carrying on your bag
• Selecting your seat
• A soda or snack on a domestic flight
• What they call a meal
• Printing your boarding pass at the airport
• Booking with a “live” person instead of over the internet

 

Gee, now if only the TSA would charge us a fee every time they do a pat down or pull us over for an inspection, the joy of working your way through an airport would be complete.  There are, however, some tips you can employ to make sure you’re paying a fair fare (love word play) and that your trip through the airport is as painless as it can be.

 

First, when shopping for your airfare, keep in mind that some carriers charge for all of the above, some only charge for a few of them.  You need to have an understanding of what is included in the fare you’re paying so that you know that you’re comparing “apples to apples”.

Once you know what fees you’re likely to be paying on the bargain flights, you can assess whether they are actually bargains or not.  One of the most maligned airlines in the media these days is Spirit.  I find that kind of funny, because these days, no matter what airline you fly, the experience is not fun.  Since it’s no longer fun or glamorous, I look at it like a flying bus.  I’m using it to get from point A to point B.  Spirit Airlines has a PERFECT safety record.  You never hear that mentioned in all the media reports.  They’re too busy sensationalizing the fees.  But here’s my experience directly compared to what you’ll hear on the news.

1.   The news media says that Spirit charges $100 for a carry-on bag?  Myth or Fact?  It’s both.  What the media fails to mention is that this is for purposes of what I like to call ‘thinning the herd’.  If you’re a member of their “$9 fare club” and you pay for the bag before check-in, the fee is only $20.  If you’re not a member of the “fare club” and you pay in advance, the fee is $30.  At the airport?  The fee is $40 no matter if you belong to the “fare club” or not.  If you skip over all these opportunities to pay for your carry-on bag, it’s $45 at the gate.  November 1, the fees go up by $5 for the advance purchases, $10 for the “at the airport” purchase, and $55 for the “at the gate” purchase.  If you’re so unaware of what is going on with your travel that you wait until the gate to pay for your bag, in my opinion, you deserve to pay the freight.

 

2.  Michael Hess of CBS News states: “The problem with Spirit’s fee argument is that the extra-charge items make it virtually impossible for the majority of fliers to travel on the published fare. Even if you can find one of the “dirt-cheapest” fares, you’d have to travel without luggage — any luggage — in a seat chosen by the airline, with no snack or drink, to actually get that fare. That’s like a restaurant saying you can get a $2.00 steak, but with no plate, silverware or napkin — sure, it’s a steak and you can eat it, but it’s not a normal or realistic scenario and therefore, in my opinion, it falls under the category of come-on pricing.”

I disagree.  Recently, I priced out a trip to Ft. Lauderdale.  I checked multiple airlines and included the fee to check my daughter’s bag ($18 because I paid in advance), carry mine on ($20), and select our seats (we paid $20 per seat to have exit row seating).  Even with these fees included (and I budgeted $6 for drinks and snacks), the cost of our flight on Spirit beat the next closest competitor by $44 each – a savings of $88.

Spirit’s website reminds us “Remember, we always provide one personal item free of charge per customer. Personal items (e.g. purse, small backpack, briefcase, etc.) must fit underneath the seat, so the dimensions must not exceed 16 x 14 x 12 inches (40 x 35 x 30 cm).  Additionally, the following carry-on items are not counted towards a customer’s carry-on bag allowance and can be brought with you on all flights free of charge – umbrella, camera, infant diaper bag, assistive devices, outer garments (e.g. coats, hats, and wraps), stroller, reading material, and food for the flight.”

There have been cases where my family of 5 has flown, paid $36 to check two full-sized bags, and used the free personal item to carry on.  A decent sized backpack will hold clothes for a weekend if you pack wisely (see previous post), especially for an elementary school student, and who wants to lug a bunch of crap through the airport anyway?  In addition, a bag or small cooler with food, a diaper bag (even if you don’t have an infant – it doesn’t say you have to HAVE an infant), and stuff you buy at the airport doesn’t count.  Also, have you seen the size of some of the purses they sell?  Seriously, you could pack half of China into one.

Here is a link to Spirit’s baggage and other optional fees, just so you can see it for yourselves:

http://www.spirit.com/OptionalFees.aspx

The point of this blog is not to advocate for Spirit airlines – I used them as a case in point, and fly on AA, United, US Air, Southwest, Jet Blue, and others quite frequently.  You need to be fully aware of what you’re doing when you book a flight.  Also, you need to keep records of what you paid for in the case of these low-cost carriers.  I got into a HUGE argument with Spirit last time I flew them.  Why?  I paid for exit row seating.  I got exactly the seat I paid for, but on different equipment – they switched the equipment, which booted me from my paid for exit row seat.  A difference of $10 per ticket.  It pissed me off.  I don’t really care THAT much – at least I don’t care that much if I don’t pay for it.  I can sit in a non-exit row seat and be fine.  But I paid for it, so I should have gotten it.  Before the flight left, I called the 800 number and was given the company line of “no refunds”. I replied, “OK, no refunds.  Then give me the exit row seat that I paid for. “  I was not unreasonable.  I did not yell.  The agent told me that I had to speak to the flight attendant and take it up there.  I stated that the flight attendant had told me the equipment changed (because the original equipment had empty seats and the new equipment would fly full) and that’s why the exit row seat I paid for was no longer row 13, but now was row 9.  After speaking to two different supervisors, explaining my situation over and over, and letting them know I had kept screen shots of the seats I selected and that I knew the rows in front of and behind the exit rows were $10 cheaper to select than what I had selected and that they had therefore failed to live up to our contract, shock and awe, my money was immediately refunded.  (Oh, I also mentioned that I blog, have about 4000 Facebook friends and I’m a travel agent – but they didn’t check, so I could have just been saying it)

Here’s the point – airfare is a commodity.  Shop for it.  Frequent flier programs are a joke – the miles are harder and harder to use and customer service is non-existent on all airlines, with the possible exception of Southwest (at least their flight attendants have personality).  But, when you shop, know what you’re looking at and for.

**Do you want the convenience of flying on a major airline where all the fees are built-in to the cost of the flight?  (Except checked bags on domestic flights –you’ll pay for those on all but Southwest and Jet Blue)

**Do you need to go in and out of the largest airports or are you willing to fly into the smaller, secondary airports?  How much luggage do you pack and how heavy is it?

** Do you need to know that you can have a free soda on board or are you ok bringing your own or paying $2 for it if you save money doing so?

Using a budget airline, whether it be Spirit, Jet Blue, Southwest, Allegiant, etc. can be a great way to save money that you can put to better use once you reach your destination.  I’d much rather fly cheap and splurge for a massage on the beach ………. But if you don’t take the time to do your homework, you’ll be in for a shock when you get to the airport.  Shock is stressful.  If you’re traveling on business or to a funeral, you don’t NEED the extra stress and if you’re traveling for vacation or to visit family, you don’t WANT the extra stress.  Do your homework.  Know what the extras cost before you book.  And here’s a truly novel idea – buy travel insurance.  That way, if something awful happens and you miss your flight, get snowed in somewhere (unlikely in May, but could happen in January), or the airline loses that bag you paid to check, you’re covered.

 

Next time – quick tips on getting from curb to gate as fast as possible – and “funny” TSA stories.

We did it again

Well, as I stated in my last blog, the biggest danger in packing is OVERPACKING!  That is – taking along things you think you’ll wear but don’t.  The post above this one shows what my suitcase looked like on my trip to Miami … even so, I managed to take too much with me. 

 

When I travel for business, or when I’m cruising and need evening wear, my preference is to go with wrinkle free fabrics, mix and match clothing, and to attempt to get by with one pair of dress shoes that is versatile and can be used in multiple situations.  This allows me to pack fewer pieces, minimizing space, while maximizing my wardrobe choices.  My go-to color is black.  On this trip, I selected a black mid-length skirt, a pair of black flowy pants, a black “jacket”, one simple black dress, and then used my tops and accessories to add color – a red top, a flowered top, and, of course, 2 black tops – one dressy, one more casual, scarves and jewelry.  I also brought along a long blue, black and white patterned skirt that can be used day or night depending on what is paired with it (a white t-shirt during the day or a black tank at night – with the jacket if it’s cool).  My shoes were a pair of black and gold strappy wedge sandals – very comfortable to walk in – good thing since I ended up taking an inadvertent 5 mile hike in them – a pair of tan canvas “Roxy” slip ons for the airport and with shorts, and my running shoes for use in the gym. I also had a pair of flip flops. 

 

So where did I go wrong?  Traveling for a week, I took along 5 pairs of shorts and 5 t-shirts.  I wore 2 pairs of the shorts and only 3 of the t-shirts.  I also packed more exercise clothes than I actually used (thanks to courtesy laundry facilities).

 

So, while we’ve been traveling for years and I have packing my bag down to a science, I still ended up with more than what I needed.  To make things easier for next time, I’ve made notes on what I took, what I actually wore, and what didn’t work well – for instance, I brought along a new top that turned out to be just “off” from the black in my other clothes – so I ended up not wearing it.  It works beautifully with my cotton or wool pants at home, but not quite the same with the “travel” pants – so next time, it gets to stay home and enjoy a vacation in a drawer.

 

In my “personal” item I generally will carry along my e-reader, I-Pod, camera, wallet, and a snack for the plane (Fiber One bar or a small packet of almonds).  Keeping things to a minimum makes it much easier to navigate my way through the airport – security included.  Even better when there is no charge to do so is to check my bag and move through security with only the laptop and personal item. 

 

As to tolietries, which present the biggest challenge to moving through airport security, I will often bring only the bare essentials and purchase things like sunscreen upon arrival, saving room in my luggage, weight, and hassles at the airport.  I have noticed the last couple of times that I’ve traveled that airport security does not seem as concerned with small tolietries being in their 3-1-1 packaging – if the tolietries are small, the screeners don’t generally seem to care if they’re all in a 1 quart baggie these days – that doesn’t mean you should chance losing something you really need/care about by not packaging it correctly – you never know when you’ll run into a screener who is having a bad day (or who loves their “power”), but if you miss a small bottle of conditioner or foundation and it is in your makeup bag instead of in it’s 1 quart baggie, chances are you’ll sail through the checkpoint without a second look.

 

Next up, a synopsis of my airport and airline experiences on this most recent trip – and some tips to help you make sure that you get what you paid for in these days of “extra fees” on “bargain” airlines.

 

A perfect travel pair

This is what your bag should look like for a trip of up to 5 days – it can serve for a longer trip as well if you have access to laundry facilities. Carry-on sized bag, topped with my laptop computer bag. The laptop bag zips open and lays flat at the security checkpoint, negating the need to pull the laptop out of the bag, saving time and hassles for those behind me. It has compartments for my cell phone, e-reader, chargers for phone, i-pod, laptop, camera and e-reader, and a quick zip outside pocket where I like to keep my passport and travel documents.

I also carry a small tote bag (not shown) with my camera, e-reader, wallet, a light-weight compact blanket for those cold flights, chapstick, and maybe a snack for the flight.

My Bags Are Packed – well, almost

Why am I writing a blog?  There are a few reasons, but I’ll sum up the most important:

 

1.  I like to write – and a blog is the easiest way to get published these days.  Whether anyone will want to read this or not, I don’t know – but I want to write it – so here it is. 

 

2.  I began my own business back in October.  My travel agency is called Traveling Together (my web address is http://travelingtogether.agentarc.com)  and this may be an effective way to advertise it, share the benefits of my experiences with others, and give potential clients a resource for simple things like packing checklists, photos of areas they’d like to go, and just maybe find me a few new clients here and there.

 

3.  A blog is a more “liberal”‘ communication tool than either Facebook or Twitter.  I mean, really – who can sum up their travel experiences, wishes, nightmares, or tips in 140 characters?  Nobody – that’s why all the travel writers who “tweet” often will “tweet” several posts in a row – effectively getting around the 140 character limit.

 

So, why are my bags packed right now?  I’m leaving for Miami on Thursday for a “fam” trip – a trip to familiarize myself with the Miami area, the Carnival Imagination, and get a little training in at the same time.  I’ll be gone for 8 days total, returning on the following Friday evening.  My 17 year old daughter is traveling with me – she’s on break from college until the 18th of January, so the timing is right.  Over the next 10 days, this blog will feature our travel preparations, experiences, photos, and general tips for those who might be traveling a similar itinerary to ours.  There are so many different options for a trip like this – reading what we do might just help someone along.

 

First things first – how do we get ready to go?  I have a standard packing checklist that I use when traveling – I start there … then, depending on whether we are doing anything special, I may add to or subtract from my list.  The list is basic and customizable – here’s a link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SZLvKEhXtDZs4L1iC5SOTtHWVvCpaa0GCOfFtOdy7lY/edit

After years of traveling for business and pleasure, I’ve pretty much got the packing down to a science.  If I’m traveling for business, my list looks a bit different – business casual wear, nylons, etc. find their way in to the list – along with business cards, my planner, and my laptop.  Either way, I’ve learned to pack clothing for this length of trip into a single carry-on sized piece.  If I’m traveling with a family member or two, and we don’t have to have immediate access to all of our clothing, we’ll pack in a 1 checked bag.  Bringing clothing that can serve a dual purpose, mixing and matching, and making sure that you have an adequate supply of undergarments and socks is the key.  If worse comes to worse, you can always find a spot to do laundry.  Most hotels and cruise ships have facilities that are readily available. 

 

Many people don’t feel it necessary to carry a passport when they travel.  I always do when leaving the USA.  In country, it’s not as important, but if you find yourself needing to fly back to the US unexpectedly, the best option is to have a passport available.  If you’re interested in horror stories of what happens without one, they’re readily available on the internet – I’m not interested in becoming the subject of any such stories, so I always have mine handy.  Along with my passport, I keep copies of all the tickets, reservation confirmations, and communications with the hotels, rental car agencies, excursions, etc. to be sure that I have back-up if what happens “on the ground” is different than what I expected/was promised before leaving home.  This documentation has saved me time, stress, and money in the past – and earned me an upgrade or two when things didn’t go quite as planned.  These items do NOT go into any checked luggage, but are kept with me – just as my camera, MP3 player and medications (if necessary) are.  I also tend to keep one change of clothing in my personal bag, just in case – and especially when (as this time) flying out of cold, snowy Chicago and into warm, sunny climates.  This allows me to change in the airport and be comfortable upon arrival – going from 20 below zero to 75 plus degrees can be a shock to the system (in a good way) and it’s nice to be able to make it a little easier.

 

The biggest danger in packing is OVERPACKING!  It’s a huge temptation – but hauling an extra-heavy bag, finding room when there is limited storage space, and the frustration of unpacking things you didn’t even wear greatly outweigh the slight inconvenience of wishing you had brought your green shirt instead of your black one.  My best advice?  Lay everything you think you’ll need out on your bed, in piles according to what it is, then cull it ruthlessly until you’re down to roughly half of what you had originally set out.  You’ll find that you still have too much … but at least it’s a start.  Shoes – yes, ladies, I went there – are one of the biggest space hogs in your bag.  If you can make one pair of shoes work with all your daytime clothes and a different pair work with all your evening clothing, you’ll save a lot of space.  My new favorite pair of “travel” shoes is a pair of strappy wedge heeled sandals – they’re black and gold, so they match almost everything.  Plus, they’re comfy to wear, look great, and if my planned outfits don’t match them, they don’t go in the bag.  Starting with your shoes is one of the simplest ways to make sure you don’t overpack.  Pick a pair of casual shoes for daytime wear (good for walking – slip on/off is best if you can find a pair like that – they work great for airport security lines, too!), your exercise shoes, a pair of flip flops/sandals, and your evening shoes and then make sure your clothes work with your shoes instead of doing it the way you would at home. 

 

I usually pack a few days before I actually leave.  That allows me time in case I remember something after I zip the bag – you can’t usually turn around once you’ve left for the airport – but the good news is that you can find WalMart or something similar almost everywhere you go – for this trip, I’ll actually complete my packing tomorrow.  That allows me a full 48 hours before I leave “just in case”. 

 

I hope this has been helpful – and that at least the packing list will help someone along the way.  I have a cold weather trip planned for February and will post the cold-weather list before that trip.  Stay tuned… next up – navigating the airport!

 

 

 

The waiting may be hard, but the packing is the hardest part!