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.     

100 Tips to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #33 Overnight Flights and Sleep Deprivation

I loath overnight airline flights.  If I had my way, overnight flights would banned. The combination of jet lag, caused by the change in local sunrise and sunset times, and sleep deprivation leaves me feeling miserable for the first couple of days of most trips from north America to Europe. 

For years I tried and mostly failed to fight sleep deprivation, by trying everything I could to sleep on the overnight flight going east.  As I recall I have flown the Atlantic 15 times, and only twice have I slept in any meaningful way.  What I have found is the harder I try, the less meaningful sleep I seem to get.  My body is not accustomed to sleeping sitting up, often in a cramped seat, surrounded by strangers and strange sounds.  

A few years ago I was lamenting an upcoming overnight flight from California to the Washington DC, and how I never seem to sleep on overnight flights a few years ago, and my then boss Charlie offered the best advice I have ever heard. 

• Don't plan on sleeping on the plane. 
• Take a good book or two, or movies on your tablet and plan on staying up late reading or watching video. 
• If sleep happens, it happens, if it doesn't don't beat yourself up about it. You will only feel worse for trying to force yourself. 
• Wear earplugs or headphones. 
• Avoid excessive alcohol, it only dehydrates you. 
• Avoid sleeping pills, they generally require eight hours to wear off, and you will seldom have 8 hours to sleep on the flight, resulting in your arriving in a drug altered state. 
• Don't plan anything for the first day.  When you get there, have a little breakfast, skipping the caffeine, drink a couple of glasses of water and take a long nap, 3 to 5 hours.  Then get up, have dinner at a normal local time and go to bed at a normal local time. 
• I find it important that I get up in the afternoon, and stay awake for a few hours, otherwise I have trouble sleeping that first night. 
• When traveling away from home on an international overnight flight, I now arrange to have the hotel room available when I arrive. Even if it means paying for the night that I am flying, being able to go to the hotel and going to sleep as soon as I want is worth every dollar it costs. The last time we flew to Iceland from the United States, we arrived at the hotel at 7:30 AM (having landed, cleared customs and immigration and picked up a rental car that morning) and the hotel clerk said "the computer says you checked in last evening, here are your keys" when we arrived at the hotel. It was $200 well spent.  

You still have jet lag to work through, but taking sleep deprivation out of the picture, eases that transition greatly.  

Some added thoughts.  Business Class and First Class are less crowded, with bigger seats and fewer people make it easier to sleep. Some people are able to sleep anyplace at anytime.  I am not one of those lucky people. 

When have I slept well?  On the trip to Spain a couple of years ago, I had paid extra for bulkhead row seats in coach.  As the plane was about to taxi, I noticed that in the center, one row back, and entire middle row was empty. I moved back, flipped the armrests up, and as soon as we were at altitude, stretched out across the seats.  I read, watched a movie and without forcing it, I slept for probably three hours.  About 20 years ago, an overnight flight from New York to Athens, I was in the first row of coach, with small and quiet people on both sides of me, I slept about 5 hours on that 10 hour flight.   

 

The Thursday Ramble: Subway Rides

We moved here, in part because we wanted to live in a city that had a good public transit system.  I bought this condominium in part because it is a 10 minute walk from the Huntington Metro Station in the Washington DC Metro Rail system. For 15 years, the subway was my ride to and from the office nearly all of the time.  The first five years, the building my office was in didn't have parking and being around the corner from the White House parking was difficult and expensive.  Then we moved to another building and I could drive to the office and park in the building, but I seldom did. Traffic was frustrating, parking expensive.  

The DC system is far from the largest, NYC, and Chicago have much older and much more extensive systems, but the system here is good.  In the city of Washington DC, the system is underground, out here in the burbs it is mostly above ground. 

When I was commuting to the office, my train ride gave me a little over an hour a day of reading time, enough to regularly read a book a week. Mostly e-books on my Kindle.  I have replaced that with reading in the evenings, an hour or two a day, sometimes more.  

The ride from here into the city, I still pause in two places to look up. I almost always look up when the train passes National Airport.

Thru the trees, at the end of the terminals, I check to see how many private jets are in today, there are none in the photo above that was taken last Saturday afternoon. I love airports, the station at at the airport has been my gateway to many grand adventures. 

The second place I look up, is when the train comes up above ground to cross the Potomac River. 

The views of the city never grow old. 

I ride less than I did when I was commuting, but I still enjoy every ride. If anything more now when I can go in the middle of the day when the trains are uncrowded. 

My World of Wonders aka The Wednesday Ws December 4th Edition

Where have I been this week?  The National Portrait Gallery, and out to lunch down the street from there at Chino Chilcano, one of several great restaurants in that neighborhood.  The weather has turned cold, so I am walking on the treadmill in the gym, and I have started swimming in the indoor pool.  Back in my gym-bunny days, I would swim laps for 30 minutes, 2 or 3 times a week. I am far from that point, but it feels great to be back in the water. And no one has shrieked in horror at the beached whale in the pool. The library. The farmers market. 

Who have I been in contact with?  On Thanksgiving Day, I sent text messages to several friends and family members, and I have had wonderful exchanges with several of them. I heard back from a friend who is seriously ill - it is good to know he is still alive. I should reach out to people more often.

What am I reading? Idiot Brain, written by a British Neuropsychologist.  And a fresh stack of books from the local library. 

HoW am I staying someWhat sane? Ignoring the insanity, remembering that the future will heal. As I read on Bob's blog, "Remember this to shall pass, perhaps like a kidney stone."

What did I fix for Thanksgiving Dinner? Turkey, stuffing (from home made bread), roasted brussel sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and cream cheese pie for dessert. 

What goes into a cream cheese pie?  8 ounces cream cheese, a can sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, and splash of vanilla extract. Cream the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a food processor or electric mixer until smooth, add in vanilla and lemon juice and mix well.  Pour into pre-made graham cracker crust and cover. Chill overnight. 

When am I headed out next? This morning, I am headed into the city to have lunch with the person who replaced me as director today. 

What amazed me this week?  The reveal of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I have been there a couple of times.  I was in New Orleans in 2019 when the fire was raging. I wondered what the future would hold.  The interior is bright, and detailed. Spectacular, we need to go back again. 

Travel Tuesday: A recent walk at George Washington's Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon was home to George Washington, the first President of the United States. I live about 9 miles from Mt Vernon, a pleasant drive down the George Washington Parkway from Alexandria.  I maintain a membership, so I can go as often as I like.  I often have guest passes for Mt Vernon, if you are in the area and want to visit, ask. 

The Mansion is undergoing a massive restoration of the foundations.

The walk down to the lower farm.

A reproduction of a slave cabin at the lower farm. 

Such a pleasant lady.

Barns at the lower farm.

A tree that is older than the country, one that General Washington would have passed by daily on the home farm. 

The kitchen garden (lower garden) has many red chilli peppers in it in the year. A spice grown since colonial times. They would be dried, and used year around. 

 

Moody Monday: Health Care

I talked with an old friend on Sunday, that triggered me writing this post.  I had another post written and ready to go, you will see it sooner or later. 

My old friend, who is about 3 years younger than I am, had hip replacement surgery in August.  Hip replacement is brutal surgery, involving cutting off the head of the thigh bone and replacing it. She had a wait for the surgery (it was not in the United States and there was a wait for what was considered non-emergency care.) The last few months she was using a walker (walking frame) to steady herself as she moved about.  Needless to say, that limited her mobility, and weakened her.  Her recovery has been lengthy, and is ongoing.  She talked about it, and I reassured her that recovery takes a long time. That improvement will continue to happen over a long time. It became clear to me that her medical care was excellent, her rehab treatment ongoing, but what was missing was counseling - mental health care. 

I understand, I have been there.  Back in 2015, I was diagnosed with a tumor in my spine. It was compressing my spinal cord, that explained why I had difficulty walking, and had several times fallen and couldn't get up. I was weak by the time of diagnosis, and even weaker by the time I was back on my feet a week after 12 plus hours of surgery. I am held upright by 6 titanium plates and 12 screws.  About ten days after surgery I was transferred to an inpatient physical rehab hospital, one of the best in the world for neurological rehab, that just happens to be about 5 miles from where I live. The first day in therapy it was all I could to walk 15 feet from one chair to another. 

In the room I was in, there was a large white board with the names and schedules of the doctors, physical and occupational therapists.  There was a line for psychotherapist, and it was blank.  I asked, and the answer was "we expect you to make a reasonably complete recovery, so that won't be necessary." I was shocked and disappointed. I still am. I had been diagnosed by a life changing - potentially life ending illness, I had been through a brutal surgery, and because I was expected to walk again, sometime, my mental health was not a consideration. 

I connected with a couple of friends.  I received some friendly advice, but neither were in a position to offer real counseling.  I did some reading, I did lots and lots of thinking. I am still not sure that I have fully worked through the issues.  My friend is trying to work through the issues of a debilitating illness, a brutal surgery, and a long and difficult recovery.  The health care system seems to operate based on the assumption that if the body is healing the patient is healing. 

The health care system is failing if it does not treat the minds that go along with the bodies.   

Well that is a different post. 

The Sunday Five: Walking

1: When was the last time you went for a walk? 

2: Do you normally walk alone? 

3: Do you prefer a walk in the city or the country? 

4: Do you prefer to walk with others around, or without others around? 

5: When will you take your next walk? 

My answers: 

1: When was the last time you went for a walk? Yesterday afternoon. 

2: Do you normally walk alone?  Yes. 

3: Do you prefer a walk in the city or the country? Either, I like smooth surfaces. 

4: Do you prefer to walk with others around, or without others around? I try to avoid crowds. 

5: When will you take your next walk?  Later today. 

Please share your answers in the comments.