100 Tips to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #34 Go To The Toilet Before You Get On The Plane

I am always surprised by people rushing down the aisle to the airplane toilet 10 minutes after the plane takes off. Let's face it, airplane toilets are unpleasant, tiny, cramped, often smelly, not terribly clean.  Think ahead, plan ahead, and go before you board. 

I am a little OCD on this one, I will probably go twice in the half hour before boarding a plane, just to be sure.  And I don't drink gallons of liquids just before boarding. 

If you can sit through a movie, without running to the toilet, you can sit through the average airline flight. 

Avoiding the airplane toilet will improve you travel experience.  

The Thursday Ramble: A Quick Travel Year in Review

I started off 2024 with my last day in the office, I am still occasionally surprised to realize that I made it to this point in life.  I think I have adjusted well, to being in charge of my schedule.  A couple of days after leaving the office we went to New York to visit friends including lunch with Mitchell, Sean and Jeffery. The end of January - first of February I went to Louisville to spend a few days with my fellow older lawyers. In early April I was in Cincinnati for a few days on a consulting project.  The end of April we went to Miami and boarded a cruise. Next stop the Canary Islands, then Spain. We took a train from Barcelona to Provence and spent a couple of weeks exploring. Then a train to Paris, and home with a change of planes in London.  In early August we went Chicago for a few days.  Shortly afterwards we drove to Cleveland for a few days. Then flew back to Cleveland for a funeral. Then back to New York to see friends again. Then in mid September we did a two week road trip, Cleveland, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and back home. Shortly after that we were back in Cleveland for another Funeral.  All in all I spent 73 nights away from home this year. We traveled by planes, trains, automobiles and ships.  

It was my most active year of travel measure by the number of nights away from home, and yet I don't feel overwhelmed by it. Back in my working days, I had a couple of years of traveling so much that I hoped the next year would be less travel.   Travel plans are underway for 2025 and are adventurous but not as many days as 2024. 

I checked a couple of bucket list items off in 2024. Crossing the Atlantic by ship had long been on my list, and we really enjoyed it. A week at sea was very relaxing.  A couple of weeks in the south of France was a long term dream item. And on the trip home, I got a flight on the upper deck of an A380 - the largest commercial airliner ever built.  In September we visited the Air Force Museum and walked through the Presidential collection - something I had wanted to do.  

There were not any super special hotels in the year. We did enjoy a new Hilton brand, Home2Suites. These offer a bit larger room, and unlike most of the all suite brands have rooms with two beds.  The Novotel in Nimes was nice, but not over the top. We enjoyed the Gite, I would like to find a vacation apartment that was in the heart of a small town - more walking less driving.  Both visits to New York were fun, this last trip we stayed a dozen blocks south of Times Square and enjoyed being out of the center of the world. For the cruise I booked a cabin with a balcony, and we did use the private outdoor space enough to make it worth the extra cost.   

We explored some great museums this year. We returned to the Guggenheim in New York, the building alone is a work of art. We spent an afternoon in the Cleveland Museum of Art, an amazing collection. The "children's zoo" in Fort Wayne Indiana was surprisingly fun. 

We saw some great friends while traveling.  Mitchell, Sean and Jeffery, Kent, Justin, Kell, and Bob.  And a ton of family in Indiana and Ohio. We really need to find a reason other than funerals to get together with family.  

  

 

My World of Wonders, aka the Wednesday Ws December 11, 2024

 

Where have I been this week? Into the city for lunch with a dear friend and a long walk. It has been old outside much of the week, so the gym to walk on the treadmill and the indoor pool for a few laps.  The community center bar for dinner with friends on the first friday of the month. A walk in old town Alexandria along the east end of King Street. The condo community center for the 1st Saturday coffee, and then back for the Arts group holiday party. Out to Mt Vernon for a walk in the fog. 

What have I been reading? Three that I have finished, Taste by Stanley Tucci, Brave New Words . . . by Salman Khan, and Old Age by Michael Kinsley, Taste is the best of the three.  I am almost finished with Six Walks. 

Where do I need to go soon? The library to restock the reading stack. 

What happened around the house? I brought the tree and a couple of cases or ornaments up from storage, we put the tree up and a few other decorations.  Low Key this year. I finished and mailed the last of my planned Christmas cards for the year. 

When will I do my Christmas shopping? Finished, a few things ordered online, the last delivery should be today. 

Who have I talked with?  Sweet bear, lifeguards at the pool (they are bored most of the time), a few neighbors, one of the gardeners at Mt Vernon who was planting spring bulbs. 

What surprised me? I won a door prize at the Arts gathering, a vase by one of my neighbors who is an incredible potter. 

How am I feeling?  Good. At peace. 

What am I worried about? We are finally spending faster than income is coming in.  We have retirement savings to draw more income from that we have never touched, spending more than the base income is a part of the plan. But it is scary when you start to do it. My father did it for 25 years and still died with more money than he had when he retired.  

Who was easiest to buy gifts for? Owen, he will be a year old in April, a fun age to buy for. 

When did I write this post? Tuesday, I usually start it the weekend before, now that I am retired I can ease up and do things the day before.  I have eight posts written for 2025 - I am starting a new series on the 50 states in 52 weeks, and the first seven are written and scheduled, Maine is written but not scheduled.  I only have a few photos from Maine so I wrote that one when the photos were handy. 

Who was out this week to have his photo taken? Travel Penguin.  

Travel Tuesday: National Auto & Truck Museum.

Located behind the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum in Auburn Indiana is the National Auto & Truck Museum. It is in what was part of the manufacturing plant, where cars were prepared for shipping or delivery to the buyer. The rest of the manufacturing buildings were torn down. It is a unique collection of mostly cars and trucks made in the United States.  Some rare, some one of a kind, some are just average production. 

A Kaiser Daren, the first fiberglass body sports care, it's party trick is the doors slide forward into the fenders. There were only a few hundred ever built. 

Hundreds of thousands of Chevettes were built, the unique feature here is this one was diesel powered.  I drove a couple of these back when they were new, they were terrible cars. 

Great Uncle Dick worked for US Rubber aka Uniroyal. 

One of a handful of Future Liners ever built. 

I don't know where I would park it, but I love it. 

A Cadillac Allante, Cousin Bill had one of these. 

Big Ed.

One of only a handful of DeLoreans what left the factory in a paint color. I truly wish that the car had not been featured in the movie "Back to the Future." It was a striking design and a milestone in independent auto manufacturing.  Even if John did run out of cash and get caught trying to refinance the company with nose-candy. 

Such a cute little thing.  I like tiny cars. 

A better looking Cyber Truck design. 

When I was growing up we had three large trucks on the farm, a green Chevrolet that rusted away by the time I was 10, followed by two big yellow International trucks.  The last of those I drove a few times, a six speed transmission and a two speed rear axle - a scream to drive. 

 

Moody Monday: New Dawns

These two images were a recent Saturday morning texts to dear one's. The Condo community is four high rise towers (15 stories each)  on about 35 heavily wooded hilltop acres. These photos were taken in the parking street behind the building we live in. Lots of trees, a little autumnal color, and the sun rising in the east-southeastern sky. 

At heart I am a farm boy, on a farm the rising sun brings a fresh start. The rising sun always reminds me that it is a new day. Each day is filled with hope and promise. What I do each day, can be a clean slate, tabla rosa, to make it what I want it to be. 

I am watching a couple of YouTube channels of people rebuilding chateaus in France. Almost always when they get down into the basements and below,* it is clear that what is there, was built on the ruins of the past.  When the day dawns on the smoldering remains *of yesterday, we start over and build again.  

My mood, is new dawns. Picking myself up, dusting myself off, and making the best I can of each day.  

* The Chateau Panard, was build on the ruins of an earlier castle.  Dan literally started with the burned out shell of a chateau, and with a small crew has floor by floor and roof by roof, rescued the place from certain collapse.  There were trees growing in the center of the salons when he started two years ago. If you enjoy these, you will also enjoy Billy who is rebuilding a convent, his sister is Sadie working on Panard nearby. Her partner Stan, has a mile of personality. Like, Comment, and Subscribe if you enjoy their content. 

Sunday Five: Blog Improvement

 

1: What is your favorite of my daily themes? (Sunday Five, Moody Monday, Travel Tuesday, Wednesday Ws, Thursday Ramble, Friday travel tips, Saturday Morning Post.) 

2: Is there a daily theme I should stop doing? 

3: What days of the week do you often not have time to read posts? 

4: Is there anything I post that you would like to see more of? 

5: What blog should I read? 

My Answers:

1: What is your favorite of my daily themes? The Sunday Five continues to be one of the most popular.

2: Is there a daily theme I should stop doing? I am bored with the 100 ways to improve your travel experience. 

3: What days of the week do you often not have time to read posts? I am able to read most every day. 

4: Is there anything I post that you would like to see more of? Looking for your answers.

5: What blog should I read? Looking for your answers. 

The Saturday Morning Post in 2025, will feature 50 states in 52 weeks - plus two non-states to round out the year. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Hometowns

My mother graduated from High School in 1945 in Ashley Michigan. She talked to her parents about going onto school to train as a school teacher, and her father said, "why waste the time and money, you are just going to marry, have kids and quit working in a couple of years." She was unhappy with that answer. She wrote to an aunt who lived 150 miles away in the Detroit area, who responded, come live with us, there are lots of opportunities for young women here. She bought a train ticket to Detroit and packed her bags.  Her father refused to drive her to the train station in Ashley, one of her uncles who lived on the next farm drove her to the station. 

She worked, taking just a decade or so off when she had young children at home, and returning to work when I was about 10. She never went onto school, and never wanted to return to Ashley. I don't recall ever going there as a child. So on last September's road trip, we went for a visit. 

To get there you drive for about an hour from the nearest city of any size. Ashley is about a dozen blocks square, in the middle of thousands of acres of bean and corn fields. Ashley is a shadow of what it once was, or might have been.  A handful of businesses still operate on the main street, the only one that looked prosperous was the liquor store. The pharmacy with a soda fountain she worked at as a teenager is long gone. The train tracks are still there, but the station has been torn down. Passenger rail service ended in the 1950's.  The town is kind of nowhere, but it is still home.  

I can understand her reluctance to return.  Her history with wanting to chart her own course and stay was denied. Her leaving not under the best of terms with her parents. A lot of stressful memories. Maybe wondering, if she had stayed, if she had become a teacher, would the her future and the future of her home town have been different? 

There are thousands of small towns like this spread across the United States.  They were once prosperous farm towns. Today farming employs a fraction of the people per acre that it once did, and people moved to cities, leaving the farm towns to decay. Many of them are the towns that time forgot, with weeds growing through seldom traveled streets. A few years ago I went to visit the cemetery my mother's parents are buried on the fringe of North Star Michigan, the bar in North Star had gone out of business, that is how dead the town was, the bar went closed forever.  

I am glad we went. It helped me to understand my mother. She was a complicated person, who held many feelings and secrets inside.  I have no need or desire to return.