Scouts Tips~Luggage, To Tag or not to tag, That is the question.

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Scout

Hi Everyone,

Scout here with another Travel Tip. Last time we talked about shipping luggage, the pros and the cons, so if you decided that shipping wasn’t for you then you will need to get your luggage to your destination some other way. In  other words, either by checking it or carrying it on board with you.

Whether you are traveling light enough to get away with just carry-on or you need to check a bag you will need to identify your luggage. I think we all know that when we check our bags the attendant makes sure there is a tag but for carry-on we are on our own.

 Why do we need to tag our carry-on you ask? After all, we’re carrying it , right? Isn’t that what carry-on is?

Well yes and no. First of all most luggage looks alike and unless you plan to be handcuffed to the bag like National Security, you will be separated from your carry-on at various times in your travel. Right off the bat you will need to negotiate security check points and possibly customs. Now if you and your bag get right through security screening together all is good. But what if you get stuck behind someone who is setting off the alarms while your bag sails through the X-ray machine only to sit at the end of the conveyor belt while other bags pile up next to it? Even worse, what if you are selected for closer inspection by the TSA. You will be taken off to one side, maybe even to a separate room while your carry-on languishes at the x-ray machine. Lots of room for a mixup there.

So now you are ready to board. You put your nondescript carry-on in the overhead and settle in. You seat mates comes along and adds their equally nondescript carry-on to the bin right next to yours. Now in the confusion of deplaning you or your seatmate grabs the wrong bag and off you go.

Now lets say you are about to change planes. You get to the next plane and it’s a little”puddle-jumper” .  You are met at the bottom of the stairs (yup no jet way for this little plane)  by an attenadant who tells you that your little carry-on must take the next leg of your trip in the belly of the beast. The bins in the cabin are too small. He attaches an  orange tag but it’s just like the orange tags on all of the other confiscated carry-ons. At your next stop all of these un-tagged bags will be piled near the plane door for retrieval. Now there’s a place for a mix up for sure.

 Is that all or are there other places a carry-on can go astray?  What about transfers? You know, from your plane to your destination be it a hotel or a cruise ship or even on the shuttle just getting to your car. Maybe you’re riding in a bus or mini-van to get from here to there. At this point your bag probably won’t get “lost”  but it could get temporarily mixed up with someone else’s similar looking bag.

So what’s a traveler to do?  At the very least  you can tag your bags with the little paper  tags available at the airline counters but you would be well served to get some of your own. Make them colorful and distinctive, add a ribbon. Some folks put a picture of their favorite  pet on a tag on their bag. Keeps them from getting lonely and makes the bag really identifiable at a glance. (Note to Rocky, I said a picture)

Rocky

It’s also a good idea to put contact information  inside the bag just in case the bag goes in one direction and the tag in another. A few years ago Dusty  got some bright yellow tags that had a cruise ship on one side. I think she only has one left.  Some just disappeared and last year one of the remaining ones was broken right in half when she retrieved her bag.

Security experts say that you should not put your address on the tags because then everyone will know you’re away. They suggest using a business address and that’s ok but if you want to be reunited with your luggage the best bet is a phone # and/or address or even your itinerary where you can be reached.

Well, that about wraps it up for today’s tip. Here’s hoping you and your luggage, be it carry-on or checked, enjoy a safe and uneventful trip and arrive…together…at your intended destination. You don’t want to be like that TV commercials where the guy says “My me time is when my luggage went to the Bahamas (pause) and I didn’t.”

 Oh and one last note on identifying marks. Last I heard, pet hair is not considered a legal description.

 Until next time, this is Scout wishing you safe travels.

How NOT to have a productive day

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Editor in Chief

Hi. It’s me, Editor-In-Chief Rocky, here to make our apologizes for the missing post today. Our traveling correspondent and main author, Dusty Roads, is having a BAD day. And that is really bad with a capital B! She just locked herself out of the house for the 2nd time in a week.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the spare key she keeps hidden hadn’t fallen out of its hiding place yesterday and she brought it inside and yes, you guessed it, she didn’t put it back out.

So now she’s spent all morning running around trying to find a way to get back in. Inspiration finally hit her. The pet sitter, my 2nd favorite human, has a spare set. So She called Diane and yes, Diane had the keys with her so off Dusty went to pick them up.

She just got back in and wanted to put the spare key back out in its secret place and, well, umm, let’s just say it was shiny and it had tape on it…two of my favorite things. Well, I don’t think she’s in the mood for me to tell her where it is right now.  She’s turning the diningroom and livingroom upside down and inside out because she knows she left it on the diningroom table yesterday. 

I think I’d better just sit back and watch. Sooner or later she will give up and I can sneak it back out  for her to find. It is rather amusing watching her stress out like this. But I can tell you any creative juices have taken a run for it for today.

 Scout is preparing a Scout’s Tips column for tomorrow in case Dusty is not back on track by then.  So please accept my apologizes and thanks for your patience.

Rocky

WOW Another Monday!

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I dropped the ball today. I usually take time on Sunday to prepare a post for today but instead I went “gallivanting” out to Plymouth Harbor to take pictures. Apparently while out there I caught a cold that has settled into my lower back..OUCH***..But enough excuses..Let me ramble on a little and you can comment with your cheers and jeers .

First Plymouth Harbor is  a pretty little harbor. The Mayflower isn’t out of winter dry dock yet so it was pretty quiet. I like their sea wall. It isn’t just this cement wall rather it’s made of stone and cement. There are rocks set in the top row that kind of point up. It reminds me of a moat on a medieval castle. I think it’s mostly decorative.

 I got a couple of nice sunset pictures. The sunsets this time of year seem to be more pastel than red.

 

When I got home I was reading one of my travel magazines that came Saturday. There was an article about Arizona ...Arizona for all seasons… so I checked that out. It covered the whole state and since we won’t have time for the southern end , south of Phoenix, that section was merely interesting but not useful for our upcoming trip. The northern recommendations involved mostly road trips and did hit some of the high points we have planned. One place that came up in the article and in an article in Popular Photography was Canyon de Chelly. I wish we had time for that but I think this trip is going to be packed to overflowing. We’ll have to see.

 

And the last but not the least thing I want to mention was an article in the same Travel Magazine about The Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. Sandy and I were there last June and had a wonderful time. In the article this family was there for  2 days…1 weekend….48 hours and they saw, according to the article, everything we saw in a week!

There are pictures with the article too. They even went to Crazy Horse Memorial.

 Like us they used Rapid City as their base but they didn’t mention much more about the city than that. They went to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial (We only drove by Crazy Horse) Wall Drug, The Badlands (can I assume they mean they drove the Badlands Loop?)and Custer State park. They mention seeing buffalo, antelope, big horn sheep, the Beggin’ Burros and prairie dogs…Ok I got all those with my camera too and I bet they didn’t get a prairie dog with a flower either!

Scout

 But to do it all in 48 hours? I like the way we did it much better. Even if the authors think we were slow it seemed like we had full days so I wouldn’t do anything different.

Well, that about wraps up my travel thoughts for the day.

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Not much to say about the spring trip until we start booking and that’s going to be soon. I’ve started exploring options for the 2012 trip but that’s still in the early, early stages..not ready for publication so I’m not sure what we’ll talk about tomorrow but I’ll think of something. Toss out some suggestions if you like. Maybe they will get my creative juices flowing. Maybe Scout has some tips up his furry sleeve.

Lake George, NY

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I think I mentioned that I saw the booth for Lake George at the AAA Marketplace and even when I told them I was from the area, they pressed the brochures and materials into my hands. I wouldn’t want their gift to go to waste so I decided to go through the information and see what I thought of the area if I looked at it through a tourist’s eyes. By the time I finished I was ready to book my next vacation in the Adirondacks!

Let me go over some of the points that caught my attention and that would make me plan a vacation in my old stomping grounds.

First of all, Lake George is beautiful no matter what time of year you go. Having spent approximately 1/3 of my life in the area I can attest to that. So the first thing the brochures addressed was the lake. 32 miles long it is always sparkling, clear and clean , a spring -fed lake. In the summer cruise boats ply the lake. In the winter there’s ice skating and ice fishing and a Winter Carnival.

When I was growing up the Ticonderoga was the largest boat and sailed the whole length of the lake. As I recall it was a full day trip. The Mohican was a smaller boat and only cruised the southern portion from the piers in Lake George Village to just north of Bolton Landing, stopping at the Sagamore/ Green Island after it’s turn around. That’s certainly changed. The original “Ti “ & Mohican have long since retired but there are new boats including a paddlewheeler. The last I knew the Mohican II, listed on the National Register of Historic Places ,was still conducting narrated tours along the shoreline.

One of the things that I don’t remember doing as a “kid” is white water rafting on the Hudson River. That and slow-tubing or lazy river tubing are new offerings, or at least new to me…not that I never went “tubing”. I seem to remember “tubing” on the Schroon River and Trout Lake. We always seemed to have a big old patched inner tube around somewhere. Now there are commercial Tubing companies Like Adirondack Tubing Adventures and Tubby Tubes.

Another attraction that sounds familiar but I can’t picture is Natural Stone Bridge and Caves. Located in neighboring Pottersville. The brochure describes it as ranging from easy walking tours to challenging cave crawls. I would definitely go there again. I’m sure I went as a child but like I said, I just can’t visualize it. Be nice to refresh my childhood memory or see it through adult eyes.

The Hot Air Balloon Festival in September is something that is has been added since I lived in the area. It’s been over 30 years since I lived there so I would expect that things would change! Now, I am not a “ballooner”, I’ve never been up in one but I would love to attend this event just for the opportunities to take pictures of the colorful balloons.

History buffs or maybe even ghost hunters can’t skip the forts. There are forts everywhere in the area. The Syfi channel’s Ghost Hunters Series has even done a couple of shows there. One in Fort Ticonderoga and I believe one in Fort William Henry. In fact there’s a tour called Spirits of History Ghost Tours that runs from Memorial Day to Mid-October. Even Fort Edward on the Hudson River get’s into the act. There you can find the Old Fort House Museum, one of the oldest frame buildings in upstate New York.

There are trails and mountains everywhere for the hikers or if you prefer the water sports, boating, water skiing, freshwater scuba diving, para-sailing or just hanging on the Million Dollar Beach at the end of the lake. If you do decide to hike, be sure to summit Prospect Mountain. Not a hiker? No problem as you can reach the top by taking a 10 minute drive up the Prospect Mountain Veteran’s Memorial Highway. Once on top you can experience the 100-mile-view of the surrounding mountains.

The Great Escape was called Storytown when I was a kid but it’s grown up and now is a Six-Flags Theme Park.

And the places to stay…well, everything from rustic campgrounds to RV parks to cabins or motels to a hotel on an island reminiscent of the great hotels of the 50’s & 60’s like was featured in the movie “Dirty Dancing”. I worked with the photographer at the Sagamore as a teenager. I remember them announcing cha cha lessons on the veranda! I know there have been many renovations done to the Sagamore but I expect it is still the showcase Hotel on the Lake.

I mustn’t forget to mention that Lake George becomes the motorcycle capital of the east for a weekend every summer when the Americade, the world’s largest motorcycle rally, comes to town.

　There’s so much more I could tell you about the area but I think you might enjoy finding out for yourself.

Roaming Around Marshfield

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Leaving the Sanctuary, I hopped back on RT 139 and headed toward the coast. One of my friends had suggested I check out the Marshfield coast and beach area for photo opportunities.

It was getting late so I stopped for lunch at Gerard’s Turkey farm. Just a quick Turkey sandwich and back on the road. When I pulled up along the sea wall it was apparent that I wasn’t the only person who was enjoying a lunch or snack in their car while watching the surf.

Once I finished my lunch I hopped out and took the stairs down to the water. Sea gulls soared over head and waves crested and crashed . The colors were amazing. Another gentleman called down to me about how pretty it was today! He had a point and shoot and was trying to capture the view as well. My guess is that his pictures will be just as good as mine. Point and Shoots do a great job for this type of photography as I learned when I took one to Hawaii.

Here on the water the breeze was brisk and had a cold edge to it. I climbed back up and decided to drive around a little bit to see what else might be in the area. I found the Green Harbor Marina and a quaint little stone church.

I headed back to the sea wall as it was approaching sunset and I thought I might get a good picture. Unfortunately the sea wall itself blocked the rays from the setting sun putting the water in shadow. Seeing that I sat for awhile just listening to the waves crashing and watching people feed the gulls.

I finally roused myself to head home. It’s times like this that remind me why I love living close to the ocean. I couldn’t have been more relaxed if I’d just come from a $100 spa treatment. It’s the whole experience, the sun, the sounds, the smells. Here in Marshfield the sea smell was crisp and salty. I’ve been some places where rotting sea weed makes the shore stink at low tide but there was none of that here today.

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As I headed into the west I watched the sunset spread soft , muted pastels today…no fiery red sky. A fitting end to a wonderful day.