Fav Flight Bag, Non-Fiction

Awareness of the outside world. The Tiffany Problem. Non-fiction that you can’t use in fiction. Tor: Putting the Historical in Historical Fantasy, Walton 2019. Medium: The Tiffany Problem — When History Makes No Sense, Povey 2020. Limited access but interesting example before the cut-off. A search on the phrase turns up other examples.

~~~

A small duffel is my new favorite bag for airplane travel.

When I went to Rochester for a family thing, I took too much. My roller bag is legal but it must be the maximum allowable size. It barely fit down the airplane aisle and was awkward to lift, even though it was only filled with clothes.

(When I pack books as well, my bags can get HEAVY. I used to leave the airline’s warning tag on my luggage handle between trips. But I digress.)

When I went up to Boston for another family thing, I decided to err the other way. Sleepwear, I was a guest in someone’s home, so I had to look decent. My formal outfit. A sweater for warm. The relevant turtlenecks and underclothes. That’s it. One pair of jeans and one pair of casual shoes that I wore on plane.

I loved it.

Things you can do when traveling with a gym bag:

Breeze past the long line of people waiting for their gate-checked roller bags.

Run up and down the hallways of the Philadelphia airport to switch from your delayed flight to earlier flight. Also delayed but earlier from my POV.

Toss into overhead, without whacking people in the seats below or causing well-meaning fellow passengers to jump up and assist. Put under the seat in front if needed.

If the bag looks overstuffed in the photo, most of that is down vest. The joys of traveling from the bottom of the country to the top.

Travel light. Dress casual.

Onwards!
Katherine