http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/04/arrive-alive.html

luggage and travel

TRX
April 24, 2012
63:
> unless travelling via Heathrow, in
> which case 20-50%)

I don't know how luggage is handled at Heathrow, but I've shipped two racing car engines by air for Heathrow pickup, about three years apart. BOTH of them were damaged by the Heathrow cargo handlers, who apparently think ramming forklift forks right through the side of a crate is an appropriate way to lift it.

> [list of stuff]

I don't fly, but for motorcycle trips I have a tailbag that a holds about 8 liters. When my wife is with me we're limited to the tank bag, with about 4 liters to hold both of us for two weeks. She can fit about 10 liters of stuff in there, somehow. I've learned to let her handle it, because if I unzip it stuff pops out like a Jack-in-the-box.

My three main tips: pack anything that can be damaged by rain in plastic bags. Mail anything you can to your destination before you go (and mail it back when leaving). We buy socks, underwear, and toiletries at the destination, then mail anything we want to keep home.

Probably not relevant to foreign travel by air, though.

Kwai-Chang Caine only needed his bedroll and flute, but I don't want to travel that light...


TRX
April 24, 2012
100:
@71:
:) :) You should try travelling with firearms.
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There's at least one sizeable blog dedicated to that very subject. Some people make a point of putting their valuables in the gun case, which, as you pointed out, seldom gets mislaid by the airline.

> Grease/oil it before travel, inside and out; ... condensation

Neither are particularly effective at preventing moisture damage. They're permeable to moisture, so the best you can hope for is that corrosion is slowed down a bit. There are some "high tech" sprays designed for protecting machine tools that are supposed to help, but they don't work as well as plain old petroleum jelly, marketed as "Vaseline" in the USA. It doesn't stain, wipes right off, and is an effective moisture barrier.

Even so, a big bag of silica gel desiccant is probably better, plus you can pack some in with any checked electronic devices, many of which are also unhappy about condensation, such as a friend's very expensive video camera that fogged up when he when outside on a cold, damp day. If your gun case has a foam liner, be aware some types of foam will trap and hold moisture, providing a nasty wet environment when the case is closed. Wrapping the foam in plastic trash bags and sealing it with duct tape may look a little weird, but it will put an end to that problem, anyway.


TRX
April 24, 2012
101:
@72:
Train travel, especially proper high-speed is certainly effective and pleasant.
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Hard to get a ticket for the Chicago to Edinburgh rail, though...


TRX
April 24, 2012
103:
@96:
And given the ridiculous excesses of the current security-theatre, I too am surprised that the "paper-suit" idea hasn't seriously been floated.
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About ten years ago I started wondering how long it would take before they just stripped people to their skins, locked them inside conveniently-sized shipping tubes, and loaded them as bulk cargo.

At the destination, you unseal them, hose them off, and inform them their clothing went off to a different continent.

Actually, compared to the last time I was on an airplane (thick cigarette fog, half a dozen colicky babies, and the Movie From Hell, I might voluntarily pick the shipping tube...)


TRX
April 24, 2012
119:
@86:
Or have you just been mercifully free of the need for air travel in a loooong time?
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1985. I don't pick up people at the terminal any more, either, since the couple of pounds of orthopedic surgical steel embedded in one leg causes major security theatre at each and every metal detector. As I've gotten older I'm less and less inclined to suffer fools at all, much less gladly.

There's no place I want to go that's worth the hassle of dealing with an airport terminal.


TRX
April 24, 2012
147:
@124:
bank charges significantly less for depositing a dollar cheque in a dollar deposit account than for receiving a wire transfer,
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Same thing on this end, though it varies from bank to bank. I've had my main bank for over thirty years, but I opened an account with a different with another bank a few years back, which didn't have new management that thought it was acceptable to charge US$60 for an automated incoming wire transfer.

I sold a book to a British publisher in 1988, and they mailed me the advance in a British cheque that no US bank would touch without a very fat fixed fee plus percentage. I mailed the cheque to the issuing bank (The Royal Bank of Scotland) and opened a pound account there, and it was a handy dump for all the pre-Euro notes and cheques, anything from German marks to New Zealand dollars. Every few years I'd wire a chunk to my main US bank. I finally closed the account a few years back.

At the time, the RBS didn't charge any fees for handling foreign currencies, which was a welcome change from the almost comical befuddlement of the US banks I was dealing with...


TRX
April 25, 2012
154:
@137:
I barely use cash either, mostly just for the soda machine. Nearly everything goes on my bank card or is electronic.
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If you're knowledgeable about data security, go down to your bank and have a chat with their EFT and DP people.

I did, which is why my account no longer has a debit card or internet login associated with it, and normally doesn't have more than $100. I've moved from plastic to cash, not because I'm a whackjob, but because I got paid to wear +10 hobnailed Security Admin boots once upon a time, and the answers I was getting from the bank were doubleplus ungood.


TRX
April 25, 2012
155:
@152:
1985? And you assume that flight conditions haven't changed in a period longer than that from the Wright brothers first flight to the widespread presence of commercial airlines?
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Yes, I'd heard smoking is no longer allowed, and more or less made the assumption that "seat-back entertainment systems" may have replaced sitting in the dark with a movie I didn't want to see.

If you're telling me they have "no screaming infants allowed" flights now, I'll agree major progress has been made.