Trip Tips

I've been home about a month, just enough time to reflect on my 3-week, five state plane, train, and automobile trip back East. I started at the International Quilt Show in Chicago, and ended up at the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA. Visits with relatives and Malice Domestic in between. I was in five airports, three subways, five states, three microclimates, sixteen Starbucks. One suitcase.

In case you’re heading out this summer, here are a few travel trips:

• Don't pack more than one bag. Depending on the airline, two bags can cost anywhere from $15-30. Southwest is still free.

• It’s easy to go over 50lbs if you’re traveling with one suitcase and start off at a quilt show. Be prepared to jettison unwanted items. I needed new sneakers anyhow.

• Don’t buy bottled water – fill up the bottle in the gym. You know the place with the treadmills and such.

• Dress for bed as if there might be an evacuation in the night.

• Free wifi is not as available as you might think. All my hotels charged an outrageous daily fee and coffee shops were sketchy. If you can’t be away from Facebook for more than a day or two, you’ll have to get a better phone than I have.

• Some towns are closed up tight on Sundays. I’m looking at you Arlington.

• Despite Joe Biden’s dire warnings, I was in the subway in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. and on five fights and never caught the Swine Flu. (Knocking wood feverishly.) Rather, I got where I needed to go quickly and cheaply and never met anyone coughing their lungs out.

• Reunions with long lost friends found on Facebook can be a great way to spend lunch.

• It’s important to have a GPS speaking to you if you have many quick turns in an old neighborhood. Clear skies are helpful too.

• You can eat pretty cheap in Bob Evans.

• Airlines are different. At times I felt like chewing gum might be the only thing holding the aircraft together. Other times, I felt like a pampered pet. I was on American Airlines, Delta, Southwest and Jet Blue. Draw your own conclusions.


• Mom’s is still the best place to be. Tied for first: my son’s guest bedroom. It doesn’t hurt that he has one of my best quilts on the bed.